UW’s Gulick Receives Advancing Academic-Research Careers Award

Eleanor Gulick, an assistant professor in the Division of Communication Disorders at the University of Wyoming, has received the Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

Gulick's research focuses on functional communication treatment and supports for people with aphasia, a loss of language skills caused by stroke or other damage to the brain. In her teaching, she emphasizes active learning and works to integrate authentic clinical content into the classroom based on her own and her colleagues' clinical experiences.

The $5,000 award will support research and teaching projects to advance Gulick's current work over her first two years as a UW faculty member.

Over this time, Gulick will complete a qualitative research study focused on identifying facilitators and barriers for implementing aphasia groups in traditional health care settings and online. This will establish the foundation for designing and assessing implementation strategies and tools to support expanded access to aphasia groups through traditional health care and online settings with high feasibility and efficacy.

While widely applicable, this is especially relevant to the people of Wyoming living with aphasia who have limited access to regular in-person services or a group of people living with aphasia in their community.

In the classroom, Gulick will focus on learning and implementing constructivist teaching principles focusing on active engagement in learning; harnessing the value of students' perspectives and experiences; and the role of social interaction and context in learning. Combining constructivist approaches with her own content knowledge and clinical experiences, Gulick will work to enhance the classroom experience for students preparing for communication sciences and disorders professions.

These plans were created with the support of Gulick's mentors, Jamie Azios, an associate professor and the Doris B. Hawthorne Endowed Chair in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and Louise Keegan, an associate professor of speech-language pathology and associate dean of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at Moravian University.

"I am extremely grateful for the support of my mentors, Drs. Azios and Keegan," Gulick says. "Their knowledge and skills from many prior accomplishments will certainly be instrumental in our planned projects. I am excited to apply what I learn from them to support students in the classroom and people living with aphasia."

Gulick's division director and the interim dean of the College of Health Sciences are complimentary of the honor Gulick received.

"The Division of Communication Disorders is thrilled to welcome Dr. Eleanor Gulick to our faculty and to celebrate her recent recognition with ASHA's AARC Award," says Mark Guiberson, director and professor in the Division of Communication Disorders in UW's College of Health Sciences. "Her innovative research on aphasia treatment and commitment to active learning will not only advance the field, but also provide invaluable support to the people of Wyoming and our students here at UW."

"Receiving the Advancing Academic-Research Careers Award from ASHA is a fantastic way to start her faculty career at the University of Wyoming," says Michelle Hilaire, interim dean of the College of Health Sciences. "Dr. Gulick's research in aphasia will allow her to help patients and inspire our students in the Division of Communication Disorders."

About the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences

UW's College of Health Sciences offers programming to train students for careers across a variety of health and wellness fields, including nursing, pharmacy, speech-language pathology, social work, kinesiology, public health, health administration and disability studies. In addition to classroom experiences, the college supports students and the community through the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic and primary care clinics in Laramie, Casper and Cheyenne.

With more than 1,600 undergraduate, graduate and professional students, the college is dedicated to training the health and wellness workforce of Wyoming and conducting high-quality research and community engagement, with a particular focus on rural and frontier populations.