The Rolland J. Van Hattum Award for Contribution in the Schools recognizes an individual demonstrating exemplary commitment and contribution to service delivery in the schools. This award is supported by the Rolland J. Van Hattum Fund.
2024
Awarded $2,000; School system awarded $500
- Kyle Greene-Pendelton
- Speech-Language Pathologist
- Consolidated School District of New Britain
- New Britain, CT
Kyle Greene-Pendelton is recognized for his leadership in creating the KEY Program, an in-district initiative for students with disabilities that provides programming focused on developing communication, socialization, and emotional regulation skills. With the goal to provide daily inclusion services, he partnered with teachers and administrators to design the program, which groups students according to their learning needs and encourages adjustments to learning environments. Over the past 11 years, the KEY Program has served more than 230 students, from pre-kindergarten to age 22, across 21 classrooms and 16 schools, demonstrating how interprofessional collaboration can improve service delivery.
2023
Awarded $2,000; School system awarded $500
- Iván Campos
- Program Specialist
- Desert Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area
- San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools
- Loma Linda, CA
Iván Campos is recognized for his role in collaborating to develop a district-level assessment program for school-based clinicians serving culturally and linguistically diverse students. As a bilingual speech-language pathologist in the 40,000-student Riverside Unified School District, Campos contributed to the creation of a multi-year program to provide coaching, real-time support, and professional development workshops for clinicians in the district. This bilingual speech-language assessment program, which included evidence-based and culturally responsive assessment practices, resulted in a significant reduction in misdiagnosis of bilingual students as having speech and language impairments.
2022
- Julie Malone
- Speech-Language Pathologist
- La Mesa-Spring Valley School District
- Chula Vista, CA
Julie Malone is recognized as an advocate for student access to appropriate services and for improved working conditions for speech-language pathologists. By raising awareness in her district of SLPs’ accomplishments and contributions, SLPs received increased salaries, benefits, and support. As a founding member of her district’s Learning Coalition, she helped develop a Professional Learning Communities roadmap to focus on educational achievement and created a collaborative database for tracking student essential standards. She helped revise the Communication Severity scales, a guide for service-provision decisions in California districts. Her work on behalf of clinicians has improved speech-language services and improved student achievement in schools district-wide and across California.
2021
- Rachel K. Powell
- Speech-Language Pathologist
- Brookhaven School District
- Brookhaven, Mississippi
Rachel Powell is recognized for advocating for speech-language pathologists and improving speech-language and hearing services in schools. Within her district, she fought for early access to speech-language services and led the collaboration to publish the “Handbook for Speech-Language Pathologists in Mississippi Schools,” providing uniform procedures and criteria for services. She trained teachers on phonological awareness for reading and writing instruction and on interpreting screenings to target interventions. As a representative of the Mississippi Speech-Language-Hearing Association, she promoted SLPs’ roles in schools and their contributions to literacy curricula and student-loan forgiveness legislation for school-based SLPs. Her support for clinicians and students has profoundly affected her district and schools across Mississippi and the nation.
2020
Awarded $2,000; School system awarded $500
- Maureen Staskowski
- Consultant for Speech, Language, and Literacy
- Macomb Intermediate School District
- Clarkston, Michigan
Maureen Staskowski is recognized for her leadership in establishing a professional development system to implement evidence-based service delivery, directly affecting more than 200 speech-language pathologists, and providing a replicable model for other school systems. Her program combines adult learning, technology, and research collaborations to support school-based SLPs. The intervention and prevention projects help students with complex communication needs who use alternative and augmentative communication, preschool and school-age students who need assessment and intervention in articulation and phonology, and students with language/literacy disorders.
View Rolland J. Van Hattum Award for Contribution in the Schools recipients before 2020 [PDF].