When the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) honors its newest fellows on Nov. 20 in Indianapolis, one Miami University faculty member will have a memorable weekend. 

Donna Scarborough, professor and chair of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, has spent more than two decades in Oxford. This is her fifth year as chair.

She is among 20 fellows selected this year through a rigorous nomination process of academic and clinical teaching, administration, and service. For context, ASHA currently boasts approximately 245,000 members. 

Miami will have 11 different presentations given by teams of faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students — 28 people in all — which is validation for the department’s quality of work. 

Through more than two decades in Oxford, Scarborough has more than enough people to thank.

“Kathleen (Hutchinson) Marron was my department chair when I was a junior faculty member,” she said. “One of the things we really connected on is that she recognized my interest in keeping my hand in clinical work, which you sometimes do less of coming into a university setting. Everything is focused on coming back to the patients I serve, and she really encouraged me to keep that clinical collection.”

Scarborough said she was encouraged to study pedagogy in the classroom to build students’ long-term memory, so that they could apply their knowledge not just two semesters later, but long-term.

“The goal has been to train students to serve their patient populations with evidence-based practice and excellence,” she said. “That’s been steady through my entire time at Miami, even as the deliveries and tools have changed.”

Scarborough previously served nine years as the graduate director, where she learned about the administrative components of the program and discovered a passion for increasing college affordability and evolving the curriculum in a changing world.

She said the Cleveland Clinic Health Sciences and Wellness building, which opened prior to the 2023-2024 academic year, expanded their clinical outreach, exposing students to a broader spectrum of patients.

“The stability we’ve had in our program has helped us through various higher-education challenges at state and federal levels,” she said. “Knowing our purpose helps us to block out some noise and hone in on challenges and embrace them, like AI (artificial intelligence). I’m really hopeful (AI) changes our field for the better to make us more efficient and see more patients, all while using it responsibly and ethically.”

Scarborough said she is thankful for the students, colleagues, friends, and family who have supported her through the years, especially her father, Paul Russell. She gets choked up thinking about him.

“My father, who passed away in 2015, was a college professor,” Scarborough said. “He taught biochemistry for medical students at the University of Cincinnati, and he would have been especially proud of me for this honor. He didn’t get a chance to see me become the department chair either.”

When she walks the stage in front of colleagues across all levels of the field, it will be a humbling moment in multiple ways.

“I didn’t get in this field to be (in this esteemed fellowship),” Scarborough said. “I was always focused on patient care and being the best clinician I could be. It’s been fun to see my career path navigate and wind, even when you think it’s going to be straight.”