Speech Language Pathology program is a candidate for accreditation

By Kate Hunger 

The new Speech-Language Pathology program will welcome its first class of students in Spring 2018. 

The School of Health Professions received confirmation on August 22, that the program received candidacy for accreditation for a five-year period that began July 1, said Fang-Ling Lu, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, associate professor and program director chair. 

"We look forward to starting a new and unique program to train competent and quality clinicians and researchers in medical speech-language pathology," Dr. Lu said. "Training SLP students in a health science campus at the UT Health San Antonio is a perfect education model for offering graduates a robust scientific education and community-based clinical training for future work as medical speech-language pathologists in diverse health care settings."

The first cohort of 18 to 20 students will begin this spring, followed by a second small cohort in the fall of 2018. Admissions and matriculation will then follow an annual schedule. Meanwhile, plans to hire three faculty members to join Lu are well underway. 

The program's medical focus sets it apart from other speech-language pathology programs in Texas, said David C. Shelledy, Ph.D., RRT, FAARC, FASAHP, dean of the School of Health Professions. 

"We are delighted to be able to offer this new master's degree program in speech-language pathology," Dr. Shelledy said. "Our program will be unique in Texas in that we will have a medical focus designed to prepare speech-language pathologists to work in a variety of settings including hospitals, other care facilities, and rehabilitation centers."