NBASLH Convention

Greetings from your 2019 NBASLH Convention Co-Chairs!

The 2018 NBASLH Convention was a tremendous success as hundreds of NBASLH members and associates gathered to exchange updates on the research and professional advancements impacting all areas of communication disorders, particularly in reference to Black communities. The last convention was also a commemorative moment of celebration of a 40-year presence as an association.

As your convention co-chairs, we enthusiastically invite you to join us as we walk into the fourth decade of NBASLH, where we will be “Creating Connections and Building Bridges to Address the Communication Needs of our Communities” at the 2019 NBASLH Convention to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina at The Omni Charlotte Hotel April 4^th - 6^th!

The 2019 NBASLH Convention will Create Connections between clinicians and researchers as we place a special focus towards advancements in clinically-based research. While we are excited about receiving a wide array of professional and research presentation submissions for review, special consideration is being given to submissions that have significant potential to directly impact service delivery with children and adults. We will place focus on Building Bridges between every aspect of NBASLH! Bridges between our speech-language pathologists and audiologists; Bridges between veteran NBASLH members and the following generations; and Bridges between student members and professional members.

During the 2018 convention, the NBASLH membership solidified the Life Membership Process. For the 2019 convention, we will Build Bridges between this membership classification change and notable moments to recognize our NBASLH Life Members. We want to be sure to recognize every Life Member in attendance. We ask that you assist us in making that happen by completing and sharing the NBASLH Life Member Information and NBASLH Life Member Application.

Lastly, but of significant importance, the 2019 NBASLH Convention will afford us the invaluable opportunity to Address the Communication Needs of our Communities. In addition to the intellectual exchange of knowledge through seminars and short courses occurring in the convention, we will continue to reach beyond the convention walls to engage in activities that meet the needs our communities within the city of Charlotte. We are excited to share that this year’s convention component of NBASLH Cares will include two components that meet the needs of our communities. The first component is being planned to provide literacy enhancing materials and guidance to school-age children in the city of Charlotte. The second component will address the shortage of Blacks in the profession of speech-language pathology and audiology by providing career day talks to young students in local Charlotte area schools.

The NBASLH Convention is inarguably a worthy exchange of scholarly discussions, networking, and professional development. Your presence at the convention makes that possible. We hope to have you as part of this upcoming 2019 NBASLH Convention and look forward to your conference presentation, awards and/or scholarship submissions. See you in the ‘Queen City’!

Sincerely,

Kia Johnson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

2019 Convention Co-Chair

Darius L. Thomas, MS., CCC-SLP

2019 Convention Co-Chair