Supporting Individuals Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Susan S. Johnston, PhD, SLP is a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah and is the program area coordinator for Early Childhood Special Education. She has been with the University of Utah since 1997. She received her MA and Ph.D. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. As a speech-language pathologist, she worked in early intervention, preschool special education, and elementary school settings. Prior to coming to Utah, Dr. Johnston was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI. Dr. Johnston's research and teaching focuses on evidence-based strategies and supports for individuals with complex communication needs, and she is first author on a book titled, AAC Strategies for Individuals With Moderate to Severe Disabilities. **** Cindy Gevarter, PhD, BCBA-D is an assistant professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of New Mexico. She received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Virginia (UVa), an M.T. in special education from UVa, and a Ph.D. in early childhood special education from the University of Texas at Austin. As a special education teacher and early interventionist, she primarily worked with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental disabilities who had complex communication needs. Her research and teaching interests include ASD, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), naturalistic early communication interventions, interdisciplinary collaboration, and communication partner training. **** Samuel Sennott, PhD is an associate professor of special education and leads the Universal Design Lab in the College of Education at Portland State University. Dr. Sennott is a research scientist focused on fundamental mechanisms to communication and language acquisition, community based participatory research approaches and AAC, single-case design research practices and tools, and assistive technologies. As a hands-on teacher and practitioner, Dr. Sennott envisioned and co-created the original Proloquo2Go application. He holds a Ph.D. in Special Education and AAC from The Pennsylvania State University. **** Lateef McLeod, MFA earned a BA in English from UC Berkeley, an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, and is currently in his sixth year of study at the Anthropology and Social Change Doctoral program at California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. His dissertation will explore how young people who use AAC gain leadership and advocacy skills through peer mentoring. Lateef was a consumer consultant for Dynavox from 2007 to 2011. He was also the vice president for people who use AAC on the ISAAC executive board from 2016 to 2020. He published his first poetry book entitled A Declaration of A Body Of Love in 2010 and published his second poetry book entitled Whispers of Krip Love, Shouts of Krip Revolution in 2020. He recently co-authored another book of poetry called Studies in Brotherly Love in 2021. **** Eric J. Sanders, PhD, CCC-SLP is an associate professor in the Speech-Language Pathology program in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at Moravian University. He earned his MS and PhD in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a speech-language pathologist, Dr. Sanders worked for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools and in private practice. In those roles, he specialized in working with children who required augmentative and alternative communication. Dr. Sanders' research focuses on service provision and language and literacy development for individuals who require AAC and those with intellectual disabilities. Additionally, he studies the scholarship of teaching and learning with a focus on graduate education in speech-language pathology.