June 10, 2005 — Students and faculty members in the Department of Communicative Disorders garnered several awards at the 2005 Annual Convention of the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (FLASHA), held May 26-29, 2005, at Marco Island, Fla.

Rosalie Perkins (B.S., Communicative Disorders, ’05), Associate Professor Kenyatta Rivers and Associate Professor Cecyle Carson earned a second place award for their research poster presentation, “Knowledge, Perceptions and Experiences of Students Concerning Death and Dying.” Perkins conducted the research as an undergraduate with support from UCF’s Research and Mentoring Program (RAMP).

Perkins was also one of three recipients of a $1000 scholarship from the association to support her graduate studies in communicative disorders, which she will begin at UCF this fall.

Graduate student Teresa Pitts and Assistant Professor Bari Hoffman-Ruddy took third place for their research poster presentation, “Reliability of Consensus Auditory Perceptual Evaluation-Voice with Pediatric Voices.”

In addition, the UCF student chapter of FLASHA tied with the University of Florida’s student chapter for first place in having the largest number of new members in 2004-05.

-- Karen Guin