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Distinguished Service Award Winner
Each year, the University of Toronto Speech-Language Pathology Alumni Association sends out a call for nominations for our Distinguished Service Award (DSA), which recognizes alumni of the department who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of communication disorders and swallowing in at least two of the following areas: academic achievement, clinical services, and promotion of the profession.
This year’s Distinguished Service Award winner is Beverly Bronte-Tinkew.
Beverly Bronte-Tinkew is a Speech-Language Pathologist (S-LP) with 40 years of experience in the field. Her nominators for this award extolled Beverly’s passion for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work that benefits all aspects of child learning and growth. Beverly’s career has been defined by a commitment to high-quality S-LP service and an unwavering dedication to clinical education and professional advocacy.
Beverly graduated from the University of Toronto Speech-Language Pathology program in 1985. Early career work included a role as the sole charge S-LP in a multidisciplinary team at a children’s mental health centre, and work with the stroke team at what is now known as Hamilton Health Sciences hospital. Between 1996 and 2004, Beverly enjoyed a productive, multidisciplinary collaboration on the Child Development Team at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, led by Dr. Wendy Roberts. This connection facilitated international outreach through training workshops and clinics in her country of birth, Trinidad & Tobago. Her advocacy and educational efforts for S-LP service also continued “at home”, with her and Dr. Roberts having embarked on multiple training trips to Northern Ontario.
After 15 years, recognizing a pressing need for service delivery outside institutional settings, Beverly launched her own private practice. Building Blocks Speech Pathology primarily serves the neurodivergent community (autistic individuals) and children’s mental health, as well as providing S-LP services for a larger clientele, including local special schools and the developmental and voice adult populations.
Throughout her career, Beverly has been dedicated to both the ongoing development of future clinicians and the promotion of the profession at large. This is evidenced through her foundational work with Ontario Speech and Language Association (OSLA) and the transitional council that led to the development of our provincial regulatory college,the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO). She has welcomed innumerable volunteers from the community to her practice to help promote the profession. For over 30 years, she has offered clinical placement opportunities for S-LP students from many universities, including the University of Toronto, McMaster University, Western University, Dalhousie University, and SUNY-Buffalo. She has additionally hosted Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) students from Durham College and Georgian Colleges.
It is our great honour to share Beverly Bronte-Tinkew’s acceptance speech as this year’s University of Toronto Speech-Language Pathology Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award winner, as presented at the award celebration ceremony:
To the Faculty, staff, alumni and students,
I extend my warmest greetings and heartfelt thanks today. I am especially grateful to the S-LP Alumni Association for this honour and I thank my nominators, Jan Addy and Melinda Hinch, for their belief in my work. I feel honestly overwhelmed and somewhat uncomfortable to be accepting the award for Distinguished Service, especially in the company of the esteemed award recipients of past years and the current nominees.
Why uncomfortable? Because, it was never about me. From the beginning, it was about the 21-month old, a control subject in a study right here at University of Toronto, but identified as showing red flags and referred at the urgent request of my colleagues, the researchers. This young man – now a math whiz – taught me as much as I taught him. It was about the 3-year old, racing on tiptoes while squealing with no language, who is now a psychologist; the 2-year old crying behind the couch in distress, without words to communicate, who is now a behaviour therapist; the child who has found a voice through an AAC device or app; the child who says their first words and first “mama”, long-hoped-for by their family. They are my heroes – and there are many more of them.
“I feel honestly overwhelmed and somewhat uncomfortable to be accepting
the award for Distinguished Service, especially in the company of the esteemed award recipients
of past years and the current nominees.”
Going back 42 years to that first day walking into The Old Church, I recall being in awe of Dr. Stoicheff, who welcomed me warmly in our meeting but then hurried me off to join my classmates in anatomy with Dr. Ian Taylor. I was starting the program several weeks late – another story completely. Anyway, I raced into that class to the horrified looks on the faces of my peers that clearly told me I was finished before I had even begun! An auspicious start – well inauspicious more like it – but I did catch up and make it through the program and perhaps even more surprisingly, with the Outstanding Graduate Award. Who could have guessed?
How lucky am I, are we, to be here at this renowned institution, following in the path laid for us by trail blazers and visionaries who made this program a reality. My good fortune to have been taught by the likes of Dr. Margaret Stoicheff, Dr. Jean Walker, Dr. Paula Square, Bob Kroll – all pioneers in our field – and the newcomer on the faculty at that time, Dr. Hyla Rubin, is never lost on me. Their considerable expertise and boundless passion laid the foundation for my own pursuit of excellence and dedication to the field.
“To this day, I cultivate connections and opportunities to collaborate, to build capacity, and to
create unique joint ventures with music therapists, psychologists, behaviour analysts, occupational therapists, educators and professionals from the arts, to foster sharing of knowledge
and expertise – all to provide the very best to our clients and patients.”
Good fortune too, in the opportunities to learn from other professionals in my career while in positions on multidisciplinary teams – particularly during my time in children’s mental health and at Sick Kids in the Child Development Centre. The amazing leadership in these teams allowed for rich collaboration and what I gained from working with people who excelled in their own fields has been irreplaceable. To this day, I cultivate connections and opportunities to collaborate, to build capacity, and to create unique joint ventures with music therapists, psychologists, behaviour analysts, occupational therapists, educators and professionals from the arts, to foster sharing of knowledge and expertise – all to provide the very best to our clients and patients.
As a member of a helping profession, I believe strongly in giving back to the field. From graduation to this day, the development of new clinicians and the growth of the profession has been an important focus. It was a privilege to serve on the board of our professional association, OSLA, and to sit on the transitional council that ushered in our regulatory body CASLPO – a coming of age for our profession – and to serve as a peer assessor for CASLPO.
“This award is shared by everyone who has touched my professional life from the start. They helped me develop my voice and I, in turn, continue to help others find theirs.”
Reflecting on these past 40 years, there have been many lessons - those that started in the classroom and those that have continued far beyond it – lessons of determination and ingenuity, perseverance and hope, acceptance and humanity. Lessons taught by professors, colleagues, patients and families. It means a great deal for my journey to be recognized in this way. But as I said at the beginning- in the end, it is not about me. This award is shared by everyone who has touched my professional life from the start. They helped me develop my voice and I, in turn, continue to help others find theirs. We are privileged to work in the field of speech pathology, but it is so much more than words, isn’t it?
In closing, I would like to share one of the guiding tenets of my life –
“
Do all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
As long as you can.
– John Wesley.
”
Thank you, again.
Know someone deserving of a Distinguished Service Award?
Consider nominating your peers!
Click here to access the nomination form.
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