From President's Desk

Dear Members,

I hope you are all well. It gives me great pleasure to write to you at this exciting time of year. Fall is my favorite season for several reasons –the cool sweater weather, holiday lights on roofs, family time, and most relevant to us, the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention! It has been the South Asian Caucus of ASHA’s (SAC-ASHA) tradition to publish the year's last newsletter right before the ASHA Convention. The editorial team, Dr. Ramesh Kaipa, Dr. Reethee Antony, Dr. Suma Suswaram, Dr. Madhu Sundarrajan, and Mr. Sundeep Venkatesan, have worked hard to bring this newsletter to you. I am sure you will be inspired by our members who have contributed articles to this edition.

It has been nearly one year since my position as the President of SAC-ASHA. I have enjoyed working with our dedicated executive board members - Dr. Anusha Sundarrajan (Vice President-Professional Development), Dr. Shriya Basu (Vice President-Public Relations), Ms. Samasthitha Subramanyan (social media), Ms. Puja Goel-Salkalkhar (Secretary), and Mr. Prabhu Eswaran (Advisor). Our focus this year has been to identify barriers in our growth as a multicultural caucus and to brainstorm ways to better engage our community. As a caucus, we have increased our visibility through continued collaborations with ASHA’s multicultural issues board (MIB) and the other multicultural constituency groups. We attended several focus groups and advocated for the South Asian community of persons with communication disorders as well as South Asian SLPs and audiologists.

I am most excited about the SAC-ASHA annual meeting during the ASHA Convention in New Orleans, LA (please see flyer in this newsletter, on our social media, and website www.sac-asha.org). Our guest of honor for the evening will be Dr. Bopanna Ballachanda, President-Elect of the American Academy of Audiology. Dr. Ballachanda has been one of the earliest leaders of the SAC-ASHA and will be sharing his accomplishments at the meeting. The agenda for the meeting will be focused on hearing from YOU, our members, on how to better serve you as a caucus. We look forward to learning from you. Please RSVP for the event here: https://forms.gle/6gfXEEgD4GAQh1qTA

I hope the end of the year brings you good cheer and health. I look forward to continued engagement with you through the new year. Happy Holidays!

Regards,

Ranjini Mohan, PhD, CCC-SLP

President, SAC-ASHA (2022-2024)