Immerse yourself in a world where people are dedicated to changing the language, experience, and worldview on everything related to disabilities.
Each book in the Becoming an Exceptional Leader series focuses on a different niche area and is written by a select group of people who have been united together by Mai Ling Chan, MS, CCC-SLP, author, podcast host, entrepreneur, and industry historian.
The goal of each book is to provide you with an intimate understanding of each author's life journey as it relates to the area of focus. This includes their personal experiences, motivations, challenges, and achievements as they grew into and accepted their role of leadership in the disability community.
Coauthors reflect the beautiful variations of humankind.
Stories are written by people with disabilities, people without disabilities, parents, women entrepreneurs, mothers, fathers, clinicans, communication partners, former engineers, advertising executives, special education teachers, assistive technology experts, speech-language pathologists, actors, lawyers, and more titles I can't recall right now.
But above all else, each story is written by a person who is committed to making universal change.
In addition, each author shares personal recommendations to help you continue your personal and professional growth. Each chapter is packed with hard-earned pearls of wisdom offering guidance beyond academic foundations. Far beyond pretense and euphemism, authors provide mentorship in the areas of thought leadership and personal improvement to help you synthesize your own knowledge and experiences. They also invite you to contact them personally and be a part of their amazing journey.
The overall goal of this series is to help you further articulate your vision and purpose, strengthen your commitment, increase your effectiveness, and widen your "ripple" in the area of disability service.
We are here to help you - help more people.
Volume discounts available for orders of 5+ copies.
Professional Reviews
Professors all over the country have found the Becoming an Exceptional Leader
series to be a valuable component of their course curriculum.
Brian Goldstein Ph.D., CCC-SLP
President and Chief Academic OfficerUniversity of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, Augustine, FL
"Communication, through the lens of speech-language pathology, is the focus of this outstanding volume edited by the incomparable Mai Ling Chan. She has assembled a talented, diverse, and accomplished group of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to provide significance and illumination to the second meaning of voice –one’s unique journey, style, and representation. The authors’ journeys serve to educate and inspire all of us because their paths were neither preordained nor straightforward. They represent the vicissitudes inherent not only in communication and its development and use but also in life. Their journeys, via their stories, coach us to be better and do better."
Barbara Moore, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, ASHA Fellow
Professor/Program Director, M.S.Speech-Language PathologyUniversity of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
"I highly recommend Becoming an Exceptional SLP Leader: 14 SLP Leaders Do More ThanTalk, compiled and edited by Mai Ling Chan for your graduate program in Speech-Language Pathology. This book provides real-life stories of SLPs from a variety of backgrounds who have followed their passions to expand and develop their skills, impacting our field and services to individuals with communication and swallowing disorders.We used the book in our Professional Issues course. Groups of two-three students were assigned a chapter to read and present so that all students could learn about all of these exceptional individuals. The book addressed Student Learning Objectives in our course to: Analyze diversity in the workplace and Identify opportunities to re-invent self over the course ofone’s career. The students were very engaged in learning about the opportunities created by these leaders and were able to apply such possibilities to themselves. Highly recommend this book for use in your program."
Michelle Gutmann, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Clinical ProfessorSpeech, Language, & Hearing SciencesPurdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Becoming an Exceptional AAC Leader
"This book is a must-read for individuals who use AAC, their families, students during preservice education, both seasoned and new-to-AAC clinicians, and educators who teach students who use AAC and/or have people who use AAC in their schools. Each chapter provides an inside look at an important personality in the world of AAC.
Students relish this kind of firsthand knowledge and often find both inspiration for and validation of their interests and the educational path they are pursuing. Since this book is an easy read, it’s a great adjunct to a textbook and lends itself to multiple uses within an AAC course. As
advances in technology continue to drive the evolution of AAC, more and more people will turn to this book for guidance on how to grow their own potential. A definite must-read for all!"
Erik X. Raj Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Associate ProfessorSpeech-Language PathologyMonmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
"I recommend this book both personally and as part of a professional issues curriculum. I really appreciated learning about the unique journeys of all of the speech-language pathologists highlighted within the book, Becoming an Exceptional SLP Leader. In addition, as a classroom tool, the book has been massively helpful in inspiring my graduate SLP students to pave their own roads in this terrific field."
Yao Du Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Clinical Assistant ProfessorSpeech-Language PathologyKeck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
"The book, Becoming an Exceptional SLP Leader, is a great primer for graduate students in speech-language pathology who are interested in being exceptional leaders in the future. Filled with diverse individuals’ lived experiences, students can discover different career paths shared by humbling leaders who have made unique breakthroughs in their own journeys. Through transparent sharing of struggles, each author‘s story sheds light on how collectively, an innovative and transformative future could be made possible with love and endurance."
Mary E. Huston, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Department Chair & Program Director
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Minot State University, Minot ND
"Becoming an Exceptional SLP Leader captures both the depth of heart and the humility of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The heartfelt stories of how and why these individuals became SLP Leaders will kindle a passion for the profession as well as a burst of laughter, and the occasional tear. Written from the heart, this book will inspire students to become exceptional SLPs and help ensure the passion of helping others burns bright in all of us."
