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Patricia Boyd, H-F speech-language pathologist, honored for volunteerism

Patricia Boyd, right, with her daughter, Elise Boyd, at a past Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention. Patricia Boyd will be honored at the 2021 event for her volunteer efforts with the organization. (Provided photo)

 

Speech-language pathologist Patricia Boyd was named an Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association fellow in recognition of her volunteer efforts with the organization.

Boyd, a speech-language pathologist at Homewood-Flossmoor High School for 29 years, will be honored at the annual convention in February, being held virtually this year.

Patricia Boyd, right, with her daughter, Elise Boyd, at a past Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention. Patricia Boyd will be honored at the 2021 event for her volunteer efforts with the organization. (Provided photo)

At H-F, Boyd is helping students with communication disorders. She said by the time students are in high school, they have worked through many of their articulation disorders. Her days are filled with helping students who are on the autism spectrum, have difficulties with language and social skills, have learning disabilities, a weakness in vocabulary, sentence structure or language comprehension or stutter.

She has used President-elect Joe Biden as an example of someone who is successful who stutters.

Boyd is the second of three speech-language pathologists in her family. She followed her aunt who got her degree in the 1970s from GSU, and now Boyd’s daughter, Elise Boyd, is also a school speech-language pathologist in an early childhood program.

It just points to the variety of work speech/language pathologists do, she said.

“The field is very broad. You can work with infants on feeding all the way to the elderly. And, the flexibility is another huge thing,” she said. With the advent of telehealth and home health care, as well as jobs in hospitals, schools and clinics, someone in the field can be selective on the hours they work and where they work. Boyd started at H-F as a part-time staffer when her children were young.

“There’re a lot of options and a lot of opportunity. There are always jobs. It’s always going to be a profession in need because communicating is vital to our lives,” Boyd said.

Her passion for the profession motivated her to get morinvolved with ISHA since her first job at ECHO, a special education cooperative, after receiving her master’s degree from Governors State University.

As part of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association credentialing process, Boyd completed a clinical fellow program at ECHO working with a mentor. 

“My mentor was going to the annual convention in February, and I went with her. Once I started going to the convention with her, I really enjoyed it and I’ve been going yearly. I haven’t missed a year since 1988,” Boyd said. 

Boyd had another mentor who encouraged her to get involved with ISHA and she’s happy she did.

“It started slowly but I really believe in not only giving back to your profession but also being informed. There’s no better way to be informed than being active in the association,” Boyd stresses.

ISHA has an active lobbyist and board that stays informed of changes that happen and how speech-language pathologists are licensed. 

“They’re always advocating for us, and providing new information that helps us understand changes in licensure or obtaining credentials,” she said.

Boyd’s first position with ISHA was serving as the representative for the South Cook Speech-Language-Hearing Association, one of 16 regional councils across the state. She would conduct meetings to share information from the state association with her fellow speech/language pathologists.

Over time, Boyd stepped in as the representative council chair for ISHA. She also served on the ISHA ethics and education committee for a time. Most recently, Boyd has served on the ISHA executive board and in September she will begin a three-year term as vice president of professional services.

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