Anne K. Marcotte

My career began with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, San Diego (1987); a year waiting tables in a ski resort; a master’s degree (1991) and a Ph.D. (1993) in speech and hearing sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and 18 months of post-doctoral research about stuttering, which overlapped with my working for about a year as a speech-language pathologist in a longterm-care facility. I then began what became 27 wonderful years as a member of the University of Georgia faculty (1995-2022). I was awarded Fellowship in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in 2015, and I held the rank of Professor from 2008 until my retirement in 2022.

My teaching and research focused initially on the measurement and treatment of stuttering, and my research efforts were supported over the years by a total of about $4 million in grant funding from NIH (to me and to my co-investigators). I taught a wide range of professional, clinical, academic, and research courses, for first-year students through doctoral students, and I served on and chaired a wide range of departmental, college, and university level committees.

From relatively early in my faculty career, I also found myself drawn to academic coordination and leadership positions. Thus, I served as my home department’s graduate-programs coordinator from 1999 to 2006, including during the university’s transition from a quarter-system schedule to a semester-system schedule and including during the administrative merger that created the current Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education. I then served as department head for a total of 10 years, both in my interdisciplinary home department (6 of the 9 years between 2006 and 2015) and in the Department of Language and Literacy Education (2015 through 2019). In addition to my work as department head, I served in the separate roles of coordinator of the Communication Sciences and Disorders programs (2014-2015 and 2020-2022) and coordinator of the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Endorsement program (2019). My leadership efforts over the decades helped with the development, expansion, and routine improvement of many important programs and services, but I will never claim that any group’s accomplishments occurred because of me as the leader. I do hope that some of my contributions through my leadership roles might have stemmed from my steadfast emphases on kindness, quality, creativity, collaboration, inclusivity, equity, and mutual support.

As a Professor Emerita since 2022, I have taught occasional courses for the University of Georgia, and I continue to work informally with current students and faculty on several projects. Since 2023, I have also had the genuine pleasure of assisting in the adult English as a Second Language / English for Speakers of Other Languages program at Athens Technical College. I love the international, multilingual, multiculturally welcoming environment, and I love knowing that my skills and abilities are being put to good use helping hard-working people.

My writing efforts currently focus on my freely available website-textbook, Culture in SLP (https://cultureforslp.com/ ), which builds on my decades of clinical, instructional, and leadership experience to provide information for students and professionals about the importance of culture, language, and identity in all aspects of speech-language pathology.

My husband and I live in Athens and share our lives with a combined total of 8 children, many in-laws, one grandchild, two cats, and two turtles. I ran my first marathon when I was 50 years old, and my longterm goal for myself is to be able to finish in the “female, 90-94” age bracket for a nice half-marathon someday.