JU’s Dr. Christine Sapienza speaks to members of Uptown Civitan Club

Dr. Christine Sapienza, new associate dean of JU’s College of Health Sciences, spoke recently to members of the Uptown Civitan Club at the University Club in downtown Jacksonville.

Sapienza spent time detailing her efforts to build JU’s speech-language pathology programs, including the region’s first master’s degree in speech pathology, slated for fall 2014 pending accreditation.

A national leader in speech-language pathology, Sapienza was chair of the University of Florida’s department of speech language and hearing department, helping it become a top 10 department within the UF Health Science Center. She also holds a research career scientist title with the Malcolm Randall VA Brain Rehabilitation Research Center in Gainesville, where she leads a current clinical trial on Parkinson’s disease. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation R&D Service, the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the non-profit CurePSP.

Uptown Civitan President Karen Taylor thanked member Iris Eisenberg “for bringing us such an interesting speaker.”

Meanwhile, Sapienza has been invited to the prestigious Dystonia Coalition’s Fifth Annual Meeting, “Research Priorities in Spasmodic Dysphonia,” in Atlanta, where will join an elite group of researchers and physicians Oct. 16-17 to discuss current issues including diagnostic and therapeutic trends for spasmodic dysphonia.

JU is currently offering the prerequisite courses in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders for students to meet the general course requirements prior to application to a master’s program in speech language pathology. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/13gpPei.

JU is seeking accreditation with the Council on Academic Accreditation to begin the graduate program in speech-language pathology. To see the proposed 2014 coursework for JU’s master’s degree in speech-language pathology, visit http://bit.ly/1dYdrVe. For more information on the degree overall, visit http://www.ju.edu/COHS/Pages/Masters-in-speech-pathology.aspx or call (904) 256-7281.