by Claire Miller
Jacqueline Laures-Gore had her first experience with aphasia when she was in high school.
She worked as a nurse’s assistant and met a man who suffered from aphasia, which is a language disorder someone develops following a neurological event, such as a stroke.
“He really made an impression on me,” she said. “That experience has stayed with me.”
Laures-Gore has spent the last 20 years studying aphasia and other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and her hard work was recognized in February when she received the Clinical Achievement Award from the Georgia Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
This award is given annually to an individual who has significantly contributed to the advancement of knowledge in clinical practices in speech-language pathology and audiology, according to the association’s website. Laures-Gore was nominated by Debra Schober-Peterson, director of the College of Education’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.
“I was touched,” she said about receiving the award. “It was very kind of my colleagues to nominate me and recognize my work. I’m very grateful and excited about being honored this way.”
Laures-Gore runs the Aphasia and Motor Speech Disorders Lab at Georgia State University and co-founded the Atlanta Aphasia Group in 2002, both of which have given her the opportunity to conduct research on neurological disorders and educate the public about aphasia.
“Aphasia affects more than 1 million people in the U.S.,” she said. “We’ve been working for the last nine years to educate and provide support to those affected by this disorder. There’s a lot we still don’t know about it, but we’re working to find ways to best help and treat those living with aphasia.”
For more information about the Clinical Achievement Award or the Georgia Speech-Language-Hearing Association, visit http://web.memberclicks.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=73856&orgId=gsa.
