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RESEARCH
CHRISTOPHER WATTS
HONORED WITH
WASSENICH AWARD
LYNN FLAHIVE
RECEIVES FERRARI AWARD
Christopher Watts, professor
and chair of the Department
of Communication Sciences
& Disorders, received the
Wassenich Award for Mentoring
in the TCU Community this past
academic year.
The Wassenich
Award
for
Mentoring intheTCUCommunity
celebrates all those who serve
as role models, advisors, and
guides to students. The award
honors Linda Pilcher Wassenich
’65 (Social Work) and Mark
Wassenich ’64, TCUalumni whose generosity hasmade it possible. Linda
serves on the Harris College Board of Visitors.
The Wassenich Award for Mentoring in the TCU Community was first
bestowed in 1999 and is now presented annually at Fall Convocation.
The Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs administers the
nomination process and there is a committee made up primarily of
students, with faculty and staff representatives. All nominations are
sent to the Chancellor, with a recommendation from the committee
for four finalists. All finalists are recognized at Convocation and receive
a cash award, with the recipient of the Wassenich Award introduced
and awarded a larger amount.
Several students wrote passionately about their admiration and
appreciation for Watts’ leadership and teaching. Watts “changed the
curriculum according to what we need in the ‘real world,’” wrote one
graduate student. She added that Watts is dedicated to his teaching,
but goes outside the clinic walls doing research that will impact the
future of the profession.
Another student wrote that since Watts has been the department
chair, “all graduate students have passed their national exams, and
the rate of students obtaining jobs upon graduating is 100 percent.”
Watts is a vibrant and energetic educator who brings knowledge and
passion to the subject matter.
Watts has introduced new technology to the COSD program, and
has been instrumental in a curriculum transformation that has
exponentially enhanced the quality of the established program. A
graduate student wrote that Watts’ “knowledge and ceaseless efforts
to fulfill the needs of his students within and outside the classroom are
admirable, and the best I have seen [at TCU].
Lynn Flahive, director of the
Miller Speech & Hearing Clinic
and assistant professor in the
Department of Communication
Sciences & Disorders, received
the Michael R. Ferrari Award for
Distinguished University Service
and Leadership at the Retirement
and Service Recognition Awards
Program in April. The Ferrari Award
was established by the TCU Board
of Trustees to honor Dr. Michael R.
Ferrari for his leadership as TCU’s
ninth chancellor from July 1998
through May 2003.
The Ferrari Award is awarded to a faculty or staffmember for exemplary
service and leadership above and beyond job duties. The award was
not created to catalogue lifetime professional achievement, but rather
is intended to call attention to extraordinary situational leadership
accomplishments that have occurred in the recent past.” The Ferrari
Award carries with it a cash prize of $5,000. To view the past winners,
please visit http://www.chancellor.tcu.edu/ferrariaward.asp.
The Miller Speech & Hearing Clinic (MSHC) is the primary clinical
teaching laboratory for graduate andundergraduate speech-language
pathology (SLP) students in addition to undergraduate habilitation
of the deaf & hard of hearing students. Students obtain supervised
clinical experiences treating individuals in the Fort Worth community
who have communication disorders.
In 2008, COSD began to experience an overwhelming increase in
demand for the undergraduate SLP degree, and enrollment numbers
began to explode - between 2008 and 2012, enrollment more
than doubled from 70 to 150 undergraduate SLP students. Flahive
demonstrated problem solving and leadership skills to develop
partnerships with Fort Worth ISD, Early Childhood Intervention
Services, and KinderFrogs to open up clinical training opportunities
for our students. She also worked to modify the patient scheduling
structure of MSHC so that more patients could be scheduled.
Three significant results were the fruits of Lynn’s efforts:
1. COSD students are currently more engaged with the community
than ever.
2. There is no longer a waiting list for individuals in the Fort Worth
community to receive treatment at MSHC.
COSD is better able to provide the outstanding undergraduate
education for which TCU is known. Flahive’s efforts have allowed
COSD to absorb the large growth and create opportunities for
continued growth.
ACCOLADES
Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences ·
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