By: Lisa Milliken, MA, CCC-SLP, TSHA President

We have begun an exciting new year of planning resources and initiatives for our Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) members! This is driven by our talented slate of Executive Council members, which includes committee chairs and committee members who are already planning to achieve their goals within our strategic plan for 2025. The 2025 Executive Council (EC) is comprised of TSHA volunteer members who are either continuing their roles from 2024 or who have recently started a new term.

Welcome to our newest Executive Board members: Adanna Burrell, Vice President for Member Engagement; Marva Mount, Vice President of Professional Services; Kelsey Hatton, Vice President of Audiology; Jessica Carter, President-Elect; and Carissa Kautz, the newest Graduate Student Representative.

I would like to highlight a few of our current initiatives, which include:

• Advocacy plans that are in full swing after months of planning during the 2024 pre-legislative planning year for this current 2025 legislative session. Our legislative team has worked on many efforts to support advocacy bills to address issues of interest to our members, such as the Interstate Compact Bill, telehealth, adequate reimbursement, and manageable workloads and salary increases, in addition to monitoring 30 total bills in related areas.
• Advocacy team members have continued meetings and plans to develop the monthly Advocacy Brief, which is a digest to summarize the latest advocacy news. This monthly publication includes a range of brief articles from the legislative team, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) liaisons (STAR, StAMP, SEAL), TSHA Political Advisory Committee (PAC) and ASHA ambassador. These contributors offer articles on regulatory topics of interest, such as reimbursement issues, and opportunities to support upcoming state and federal legislation that may be applicable to our members. Here is a link to read recent Advocacy Briefs.
• A comprehensive plan is in the works for continuing education (CE) webinars to include the advanced-level courses applicable to our members across all settings as well as intermediate-level courses on topics of interest to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists. We have a long list of on-demand courses that are either free or available at a significantly discounted rate for our members. Please check out TSHA’s directory of online professional development courses.
• Committees are beginning their meeting plans to develop new resources and relevant updates for our members across the different work settings. You can check our social media sites to stay up to date on some of these new initiatives! Follow TSHA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Finally, anticipate an amazing TSHA Convention this year! Our Educational and Scientific Affairs team has been at work for many months planning this great annual convention, which will take place in San Antonio May 1-3! This will include many opportunities for learning and networking and coincides with the last few days of the annual San Antonio Fiesta, an annual city celebration of San Antonio’s rich and diverse cultures. This team has planned a variety of topics across the three-day convention as well as exclusive Master Classes and keynote sessions that include specialized topics like telepractice, Gestalt language, and the behavioral assessment and management of upper airway disorders. Make plans now to register and attend this dynamic event!

I am looking forward to all that lies ahead and hope to see you all at our Convention in May!

More Executive Board News
• Volunteer for TSHA Today!
• Executive Board Roster
• View the Current TSHA Strategic Plan