Thus far, this has been a successful year for HESP, its faculty and its students. Your alma mater, the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, has risen dramatically in national rankings for graduate programs in communication sciences and disorders. One of our faculty (Tracy Fitzgerald) won a prestigious ASHA young investigator award. Other good news includes three new faculty hires who add greatly to our research and teaching strengths, and the award of a grant from the Montgomery County Public Schools that has allowed us to expand our MA program in speech-language pathology. In spring of 2006, we will graduate our first cohort of Au.D. students.

This progress has been made despite the fact that state funding for the Department and the Clinic have remained relatively flat, while our activities expand in scope. I am proud that HESP has been able to build momentum even in difficult budgetary times, and I intend for this momentum to continue. I hope that HESP alumni will continue to help us with much needed improvements to our facility, equipment, materials and student funding sources. Just this year, an alumna of the program (whose chooses to remain unnamed) provided HESP students with a generous endowment to support their thesis and dissertation research, and many of you have continued to support us with gifts large and small. The Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Maryland is a program on the rise; with your help we can keep this momentum going. Please consider becoming a "Friend of HESP" when we contact you for your support. Join us as we position your alma mater at the forefront of new and exciting work in normal and disordered speech, language and hearing. Thank you in advance.