Past ArkSHA Clinical Career Award Recipients
Debbie Ware received the 2016 Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Career Award. Her clinical achievements began in San Diego where she worked for 16+ years in the San Diego Unified School District as an itinerant SLP, a special day class teacher, and a diagnostic resource teacher. She also participated in a 3 year multi-agency grant project that resulted in her being named the lead implementer on a team that opened the first pre-school classroom for children with Autism using evidenced based practice. Debbie currently works on the state-wide Easter Seals of Arkansas-Outreach Program as a consultant, heads up a two week-long summer training called Behavioral Approaches using STAR Implementation and Coaching (BASIC) and CONNECT-Evidence Based Practices to Classroom Curriculum, and is also a trainer for STAR Autism Support and travels the country training others about this curriculum for children with Autism.
Dr. Dan Tullos received the Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Award in 2015 for the far-reaching impact he has had on the disciplines of audiology and speech-language pathology through his service in academia at Harding University. Over the past 41 years, he has held memberships in 13 different professional organizations and has served on 16 different committees for ASHA, ArkSHA, the Canadian Speech and Hearing Association, and the Council of Academic Programs. Dr. Tullos has spent most of his career training future clinicians at Harding, championing the undergraduate CSD program with clinical services that provide impact across the state of Arkansas, advocating for the graduate program at Harding, and has been instrumental in many multicultural works to expand students’ clinical and cultural perspectives. He is the heart and soul of the programs at Harding where his loyalty has never wavered and where he continues to be a shining example to his colleagues.
Dr. Pat Highley received the Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Award in 2013 in recognition of her achievements of nearly 30 years of clinical service and 27 years as a clinical educator. She is an accomplished clinical scholar and lecturer as evidenced by her published articles in peer-reviewed and trade/consumer journals. She has a record of scholarship as a collaborator, co-author, and contributor of conference presentations at the international, national, state, and local levels. Dr. Highley is recognized by her peers as an expert at assistive listening technology with a particularly special interest in helping clients with hearing loss regain use of the landline and cellular phones. She helps her clients come to terms with their hearing loss in their own time and on their own terms. Dr. Highley is the coordinator of two important community services provides through UAMS/UALR: AAHIC Hearing Aid Loaner Bank and the AAHIC Assistive Listening Device Center-this center is the largest collection of ALDs in Arkansas.