BSOS Congratulates New HESP Chair Rochelle Newman
The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences congratulates Professor Rochelle Newman, who assumes leadership of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) as chair as of July 1.
“Rochelle’s commitment to teaching and to student services—and her impressive and collaborative research portfolio—make her an excellent choice for the next chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences,” said Dean John Townshend. “We are very fortunate to have a new chair who has already demonstrated her leadership through her many contributions to our University, and to her field.”
Professor Newman currently serves as director of graduate studies for HESP as well as for the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. She also is an associate director of the Maryland Language Science Center. In 2013, Professor Newman was honored with the BSOS Outstanding Graduate Advisor award.
Her research focuses on speech perception and language acquisition, specifically in how the brain recognizes words from fluent speech—especially in the context of noise—and how this ability changes with development.
“Becoming chair of a department such as HESP is both a daunting responsibility and an exciting opportunity. My goal is to make the Hearing and Speech Department one of the top-10 programs in the field within the next 10 years. To do that, we need to tap more fully into an already strong collaborative environment at the University, leveraging the strengths of the rest of campus to both enhance and gain higher visibility for our research, clinical, outreach and educational activities,” Professor Newman said.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1135","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"300","style":"width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 5px; float: left;","width":"300"}}]]Professor Newman takes the helm from Professor Nan Bernstein Ratner, who has served as chair of the department for 22 years. Professor Ratner will now continue to serve as a full-time faculty member, and will focus on her research agenda and collaborative projects.
“I am really excited about Rochelle being appointed to the chair; she is a born leader and has tremendous vision that has already changed the face of HESP as well as other initiatives across campus, such as the Infant Studies Consortium and the recently developed University of Maryland Autism Research Consortium,” Professor Ratner said. “She has always fostered synergy among groups, which has already positioned HESP as a player in the larger University community. She also is already making HESP a player in the new Big 10 Committee on Institutional Cooperation, with very timely work to explore causes, symptoms and therapies for head trauma.”
Under Professor Ratner’s guidance, the department has transformed into a renowned national program with an emphasis on multidisciplinary research and on clinical service-learning.
Among numerous accomplishments as chair, Professor Ratner said she has been particularly proud to work with HESP faculty and “a fabulous series of deans” to found the Language-Learning Early-Advantage Program for children with delayed language and to develop a contract with a local school system to solve a state-wide shortage of speech-language pathology programs available to work in the schools. She also expanded the number of clinical and research faculty, and has focused on raising the department’s research efforts and grant acquisitions. Professor Ratner also emphasized the importance of the department’s involvement with University-wide initiatives, such as the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing.
“Nan has been nothing less than a transformational chair. She has been a tireless advocate for her students, faculty, clinicians and alumni. Her incredible energy and leadership have inspired growth and innovation in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, and I know that she will be instrumental in its future success,” said Dean Townshend.
These accomplishments are even more significant given the challenges facing the department when Professor Ratner first took on the leadership role.
“I became chair after three successive attempts to close HESP because it was not thought to be performing well and was considered costly to run. I am proud of all HESP faculty who helped to definitely combat these perceptions and then help me grow the department through a series of successful rankings to our position in the top 20 U.S. programs.”
Professor Ratner said she looks forward to working with Professor Newman and the HESP community to expand the scope and raise the profile of the department.
“My next goals are to work with our top-ranked linguistics program to develop a cooperative training grant to prepare clinical researchers in communication development and disorders. I also will be working with potential corporate and individual donors to support the work we do in our clinics and preschool, and in our Autism, Infant Research and Concussion collaboratories with others on campus,” Professor Ratner said. “I also will take a few months off to train myself in emerging technology important to my own research in stuttering and child language, such as neuroimaging and event-related potentials.”
Professor Newman said she and her colleagues have been inspired by Professor Ratner’s leadership.
“Nan Ratner transformed the department from one on the verge of closure to a highly-regarded, top-20 department. She created a department culture of respect and collaboration, and set the stage for us to make the next leap forward. She worked tirelessly as chair for a very long time, and the department and the College owe her a debt of gratitude,” Professor Newman said.
The department has a number of strengths which will help accelerate its forward trajectory, Professor Newman said.
“I aim to help our faculty leverage its cohesiveness and its ability to work together across disciplinary and constituent groups. Recent years have seen the development of a number of new initiatives that integrate the clinical and research components of the department, such as the Maryland Aphasia Research and Rehabilitation Center. There are many activities that include both clinical and tenure-track faculty working in collaboration,” Professor Newman said. “The challenge is to develop these synergistic activities still further, without burning ourselves out by attempting to do too much.”
Professor Newman said she also hopes to lead the department in enhancing its global partnerships, particularly with countries that have less-established track records in the clinical domain. She also is eager to work with HESP alumni to build on current momentum and move the department to a new level of excellence.
“HESP is a very different place now than even five years ago. We are far more interdisciplinary and collaborative; our faculty members are actively involved in the new Maryland Language Science Center, the Center for the Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing, the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, and even the new Maryland Language and Literacy Center. We work with colleagues at Walter Reed, Children's National Medical Center, Head First Clinics and NIH. We do an immense amount of outreach to our local community,” Professor Newman said. “I would like to involve our alumni further in these efforts. In particular, I am exploring the possibility of forming an external relations committee that would actively involve alumni and other members of the community.”
Professor Newman encourages alumni interested in learning more to contact her at 301.405.4226 or rnewman1@umd.edu.
Published on Thu, May 15, 2014 - 3:31PM