Welcome to this month’s NSSLHA Roundup, where we spotlight the impactful initiatives of our members as they build more inclusive and supportive communities on their campuses. This edition focuses on DEI events that are making a difference—from pride parades to sign language collaborations, inclusive games, and guest speaker events.

Hear from four National NSSLHA members as they share the creative ways their chapters are fostering inclusivity, educating peers, and learning from each other to create lasting change.

This month, we will be hearing from four National NSSLHA members:

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What are some successful DEI events that your chapter has planned?

Tamia Manning
DePaul University
Our chapter participated in the Chicago Pride Parade. It’s important that we stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community not only as professionals, but as people. We also collaborated with the President of DePaul’s ASL Club, who gave an enlightening snapshot of her life as a Deaf person (and whose first language was ASL). She also taught us SLP-specific words/phrases that can be beneficial to our practice as future SLPs.

Emerson Gaines
Northern Illinois University
One successful DEI event that our chapter has planned is an organization collaboration with Northern Illinois University’s “Signing Huskies” sign language club. We did this in honor of Deaf Awareness Month, which was this past September. During this meeting, we educated our members on the importance of Deaf culture and the history behind Deaf Awareness Month. Signing Huskies taught our members many meaningful signs that relate to Deaf culture and communicative disorders. We always like to include games at our meetings to keep things lighthearted while still staying on academic track, so we played “family feud” style trivia. It was exciting to see how well our members paid attention and how impactful conversations we had about Deaf awareness was.

Another upcoming event that we have going on is a collaboration with GiGi’s Playhouse. To celebrate Down Syndrome awareness month, we are volunteering through four different programs at the Rockford, IL location. These include Language, Music, N’Our Peeps, a basic sign language program specific to ages birth to six; Dancing with Jen, a program designed to teach individuals with Down Syndrome basic dance skills, gross and fine motor skills, and flexibility, and coordination; GiGi’s Kitchen, which teaches basic cooking and life skills, is centered for adults; and GiGi U and GiGi Prep, a college program designed to help those who have Down Syndrome hone in on life skills needed to get a job! We are also hosting a rock painting event, painting rocks blue and yellow for Down Syndrome awareness month. Afterwards, we are going to take a picture and post/tag GiGi’s Playhouse to show them our support and place the rocks all around campus.

Kaelyn Lombard
Minnesota State University Moorhead
We just held an inclusive soccer game at our school where we all learned how to play soccer in wheelchairs, and we were not allowed to use our legs or anything to help us.

Janella Velasco
University of Southern California
USC’s chapter NSSLHA hosted a “Speech on the Spectrum” guest speaker event with Netflix show Love on the Spectrum‘s Abbey Romeo and her mother, Christine Romeo. Our NSSLHA members learned about their experiences with speech therapy as an individual with autism and as a parent of a child with autism. Abbey and Christine spoke on the positive impacts that their speech-language pathologists have done for her communication. Abbey even sang her song, “Categories,” live for our NSSLHA members. This will always be a memorable DEI guest speaker event for our chapter NSSLHA.

How do you foster inclusivity in your NSSLHA chapter?

Tamia Manning
DePaul University
In the DePaul chapter, we believe representation is important. This year, we have a diverse executive board that is able to bring in personal experiences to showcase personal areas of interest and culture. Additionally, we collaborate with community members (DePaul campus or Chicagoland resources) to talk about important topics like wellness, areas of advocacy, and more.

Emerson Gaines
Northern Illinois University
We foster inclusivity into our chapter through using inclusive terms/language, recognizing and celebrating our differences, inviting those from every culture and background to attend our meetings and events, and educating ourselves in the topic of cultural competence and humility.

Kaelyn Lombard
Minnesota State University Moorhead
We foster inclusivity in our chapter by hosting and creating events surrounding advocacy, diversity, and inclusion of all within our organization and the surrounding communities.

Janella Velasco
University of Southern California
Our chapter NSSLHA values inclusivity. To foster inclusivity, our chapter board builds rapport with all members and creates events with our members in mind. As a graduate chapter, we understand that our members have a busy and stressful schedule. When planning events, we are considerate of our members’ time and are thoughtful with the ideas we come up with. We want our NSSLHA events to be as inclusive as possible to all students who are interested in attending/joining. We strive to be thoughtful of all backgrounds, learning styles, and abilities to offer equal access to opportunities in our chapter.

How do you educate your chapter members on your DEI initiatives?

Tamia Manning
DePaul University
Our program has DEI at our foundation, so we try to host various events pertaining to DEI initiatives or events. For example, during Black History Month 2024, two of our DePaul NSSLHA e-board members volunteered and spoke at two separate events hosted by the department. Students were invited, but direct participation in the production of such events was an important moment for our chapter. Additionally, we recognize that we cannot teach everything. It is important for us to coordinate community members who focus on DEI issues to come and create dialogue directly with us. Another example is having e-board representation at this year’s Friends One-Day Conference in Chicago (The National Association of Young People Who Stutter).

Emerson Gaines
Northern Illinois University
We educate our chapter members on our DEI initiatives through means of our meetings, weekly emails, our social media, by creating a culture of inclusivity, recurring discussions about DEI, and mentorship.

Kaelyn Lombard
Minnesota State University Moorhead
We educate our chapter on DEI initiatives by hosting events such as our inclusive soccer match. We have also hosted speakers with various abilities to discuss how we can support DEI in the community and beyond.

Janella Velasco
University of Southern California
Our chapter educates our members through posting on our Instagram. We post about cultural holidays and awareness days/months. Our chapter Historian has created posts highlighting Asian American Pacific Islander Month, Black History Month, and Pride Month. This past summer, we created a post on gender-affirming care for SLPs with information provided by USC’s gender-affirming care lead clinician, Felicia François, BM, MS, CCC-SLP. We utilize our social media platform to spread DEI education to our NSSLHA members and other followers.

What National NSSLHA resources do you utilize when planning DEI initiatives?

Tamia Manning
DePaul University
We take DEI and advocacy seriously, so our NSSLHA chapter checks out what advocacy challenges or news are posted online via National NSSLHA and/or ASHA!

Emerson Gaines
Northern Illinois University
We often use the idea bank of DEI Activities for events, then our juices start flowing with more event ideas! We like to read other NSSLHA chapter monthly blogs and past blogs for ideas, and we’ve also really enjoyed browsing the “Stop the Silence” resource. It’s provided us with so many amazing materials!

Kaelyn Lombard
Minnesota State University Moorhead
We always check the National NSSLHA website when planning DEI events.

Janella Velasco
University of Southern California
When planning DEI initiatives, we use National NSSLHA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action Resources page. On this page, we learn about previous DEI activities and ideas that other chapters have done to gain ideas of what we can do for our chapter. The website also provides blogs and posts from National NSSLHA members sharing their unique multicultural perspectives that we can share with our members.

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Look for more diversity, equity and inclusion meeting ideas on the National NSSLHA website.

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