WSSLHA hosted a Multicultural Panelist Event on November 15, 2022, at 5:30 PM EST via Zoom. We were joined by professional Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists who shared their experiences in the field and gave members the chance to ask questions, learn, and network!
WSSLHA board introduced four special panelists to the attendees, giving each panelist the opportunity to present information about their educational and career experience, research/clinical interests, and fun facts about themselves!
Dr. Xiying Guan, Ph.D
Dr. Guan grew up in China and came to the US at age of 26 because because he loved Americans’ creativities in science, technologies, and arts. He went to into the Bioengineering PhD program at University of Oklahoma and studied middle-ear function. Dr. Guan completed his postdoctorate at Harvard medical school and helped develop implantable microphones and studied how bone-conduction hearing works. In summer of 2020, he joined the CSD department at Wayne State as an assistant professor.
Dr. Gabrielle Watson, AuD
Gabrielle Watson has been an implant audiologist at the University of Michigan Medicine’s Hearing Rehabilitation Center since September 2019. She provides diagnostic and rehabilitative services for implantable devices to patients of all ages. She also works as a Research Audiologist at Kresge Hearing Research Institute under PI: Dr. Bryan Pfingst and has interests in evoked potentials and cochlear health following cochlear implantation. She received her BA, MA, and AuD from University of Iowa. She completed her 4th year LEND externship at Oregon Health Science University. Gabrielle was involved in her NSSLHA chapter in undergrad and has continued her involvement with ASHA as a member of the Early Career Professionals Program and as a panelist for the Curriculum and Practice Analysis hosted by ASHA and ETS. She is originally from Southern Illinois and is first generation American.
Mrs. Aaron Hardy-Smith, CCC-SLP, Ed.S.
Aaron Hardy-Smith, M.A., CCC-SLP, Ed.S. is the Director of Speech Language Pathology (SLP) at MetroEHS Pediatric Therapy Company. She earned her B.S. and M.A. degrees in Speech Language Pathology from Western Michigan University, and her Education Specialist certification in Special Education Administration from Wayne State University. Aaron has worked in various settings and began her career as a school based SLP. She served as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wayne State University for ten years, where she taught and supervised undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers in the field. Mrs. Hardy-Smith is pleased to continue teaching students at WSU as a part time Clinical Educator in the Outpatient Clinic. In addition to ASHA and NBASLHA, she is a member of MSHA and was appointed to the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee for the organization.
Dr. Li Hsieh, Ph.D
Dr. Li Hsieh has been an Associate Professor at Wayne State University in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders since 2008 (Assistant Professor, 2001-2008). She completed her post-doctoral Fellow in 2001 in Cognitive Neuroscience and Functional MRI imaging of cognitive and linguistic processing. She served in the Multicultural Issues Board in the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) for 5 years. Dr. Hsieh was president of the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Caucus for 5 years, and now serves on the advisory board.
She is a Taiwanese American who places great emphasis on multicultural and multilingual aspects of speech and language. Dr. Hsieh stands behind the fact that Speech and Language communication is a human right and that it ensures quality of life throughout the life span.
Q & A
Following introductions, the panelists were open to questions from WSSLHA board and members. The panelists gave a lot of insight on experiences in their fields, ranging from their struggles in the field as diverse individuals, how they advocate for themselves and their community, how their diverse background positively influenced their experiences in the field, and more! Here are just a few highlights.
Q: How has being in an underrepresented field allowed you to promote advocacy within your own cultural background?
A: [Mrs. Hardy-Smith] "I think that it's important to have very strong mentorship relationships and that's one way that I help support the incoming and young early career professionals that represent underrepresented backgrounds in the field...I think recruitment or retention of minorities or underrepresented populations in the field is important, from students all the way up to retaining those who are in the field already, because maybe they're here but they don't feel supported, so they decide to go do something else! ...I call it my business to make sure that I'm a mentor to young staff no matter where they're from, no matter their background, and I think that is critically important."
Q: Are there any cultural barriers that you have come across during your education/workplace/research field?
A: [Dr. Watson] "In my externship I did a couple different research projects...and in Oregon, where I was at, there was a fairly large Latinx population, and one of the projects that I worked on was looking at barriers to care that Latinx families went through in the Cochlear implant process for monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking families...I got to present it to families who were monolingual/Spanish-speaking, kind of the barriers they saw were most important, one of them being having access to providers who spoke the same language and came from the same background...It would have been nice to have someone from their own culture to converse with, also the need for connection with other families who were going through the same process because that culture is very family-oriented...Moving to Michigan and not having such a large Latinx population but then having a large Arab population...in my clinic day-to-day I see kind of the same things happen so...if I have a baby coming in for new patient/initial consult for cochlear implants and their family is the first baby who's had hearing loss, everything is new to them and if I can connect them to someone in their culture who has gone through the process maybe 5 years ago so they can see a child growing up, they have normal speech and language, they are able to converse in both Arabic and English, seeing that it's possible is such a good influence for that family."
Q: [To Dr. Hsieh and Dr. Guan] As an Asian immigrant who came here for higher studies, how did you advocate for yourself and demand that you should be viewed in the same expectations as your other counterparts/cohorts?
A: [Dr. Hsieh] "It's hard to go against the authority...especially when people already have either biases or agendas, and I think that's where we have to learn the skills in communication...As a meditator I learned different skills like when people start to talk you down or give you commands...of course depending on the situation...if they are out of good intentions, we need to listen first, open our ears first. Listen to what is behind it, if it is out of good intentions and they have the knowledge and skills to share with us. They might not have the best knowledge of what you understand or what you can accept...but at least if both sides can look into/behind it, with good intentions, that's great! And if there is something of ignorance...then you have to learn to have the wisdom to filter it out and take what is better for you...Sometimes the best response is not to have a direct confrontation, which in Asia, we don't like confrontation, and we don't know how to say no...But at some point, I'm an American, too. I can be direct, too...You can make the room for you to explain yourself or even share your opinion...And sometimes humor is very helpful too!"
A: [Dr. Guan] "I think when you try to advocate for yourself, especially for, like, people like me, a non-English speaker, also from a different culture, it's gonna be difficult...I realize I'm never gonna be able to speak English as fluently as a native speaker, that's a given...So what I usually do if I anticipate I'm gonna (be) in a position to confront with other people, I do a lot of homework. I prepare well before I enter that stage...For example, at a faculty meeting, say...I wanna say my opinion about it (the topic of discussion), I would do a lot of homework on the issue...I would even write it down...the points I wanna address. Cause I know if I don't prepare well, I'm not gonna (be able to) advocate for myself or my point very well...That's probably an extra step for people like me."
Zoom screenshot from our Multicultural Panelist Event 11/15/22
We at WSSLHA take pride in our diverse student body and loved having such wonderful role models to celebrate diversity, spread awareness, and encourage minorities in the field of Speech, Language, and Hearing!
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