Speech-Language Professor Takes Home Highest Professional Award

December 4, 2012

Donna Geffner, Ph.D., Professor and Program Director in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has earned many accolades during her 42-year teaching career. The most recent of these was the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Honors of the Association Award, presented to her on November 16 at ASHA’s annual convention in Atlanta, GA.

ASHA’s highest achievement, the Honors of the Association Award, is reserved for members who have produced an outstanding body of work that has contributed to improving the quality of life of the hearing and/or speech impaired. “I am so thankful to receive this award,” said Dr. Geffner. “I appreciate being recognized by my profession.”  

Dr. Geffner was acknowledged by ASHA for her many contributions, including creating St. John’s University’s undergraduate and graduate Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology programs and launching the pioneering Speech and Hearing Center on the Queens, NY, campus.

The Center, designed to diagnose and treat speech, language and hearing disorders in children and adults, offers students invaluable on-site experience. “We are one of very few colleges nationwide,” said Dr. Geffner, “to give undergraduates this unique opportunity.” She also recently developed the Long Island Au.D. Consortium Doctoral Audiology Program. This marked the first time that St. John’s, Adelphi and Hofstra Universities have jointly offered a degree program.

Ewa Dynda ’05C, ’07G, who was Dr. Geffner’s student worker during her junior year, and later her Graduate Assistant, discovered that she loved working with the hearing and speech impaired. “Dr. Geffner is an amazing teacher and mentor,” she said, “who continues to inspire me.” Today, Dynda is a full-time speech-language pathologist, specializing in autism and developmental disabilities, while she pursues a Ph.D.

Throughout her career, Dr. Geffner has motivated thousands of students like Dynda, and has written three textbooks and more than 300 papers — many delivered worldwide. She has also found time to serve as president of ASHA and the NYS Speech-Language-Hearing Association. In 2003, she was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Providence College.

Majoring in speech and theater in college, Dr. Geffner initially wanted to become an actress. But after graduating from college, she decided that she wanted to make a difference by helping people with speech and hearing problems. “I wanted to improve lives,” she said, “by productively combining my interests in speech, medicine and teaching.”

Joining St. John’s in 1970, Dr. Geffner was attracted by the University’s commitment to developing a first-rate program in speech and language. “I saw a lot of potential here for turning my vision into a reality,” she said. Her assessment was accurate. “Every proposal I submitted to add academic programs and resources was implemented.”

In her early years at St. John’s, encouraged by the Director of the University’s TV Center, Dr. Geffner wrote, produced and hosted a TV series for NBC. “We were trying to educate the public about the nature and variety of hearing and speech disorders,” she said. “I was thrilled when my program on stuttering was nominated for an Emmy.” The program, a 10-part series, was televised multiple times nationwide.

She went on to create a 27-part series for CBS on people with disabilities, which received the U.S. President’s Medal for Outstanding Achievements in Films about Rehabilitation.

Looking back, Dr. Geffner said, “The work I do here is always stimulating and satisfying. I plan to continue teaching until the day I no longer can. I consider myself very lucky and very happy to be part of the St. John’s community.”