SHAV Honors and Awards

The SHAV Honors Committee is responsible for recommending candidates for various honors of the Association. These include the SHAV Fellows, SHAV Early Career Professional, as well as Outstanding Student Leader. The Honors Committee also recommends the state’s nominee for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation’s State Clinical Achievement Award to the Board. A description and criteria for each award is listed below.

Call for Award Nominations

Celebrate Excellence!

The Honors Committee is inviting you to recognize your outstanding colleagues. Take a moment and think of colleagues you know who stand out as having made exemplary contributions to our profession, our consumers, and/or our association. We need your assistance to help us recognize that excellence at the Awards Ceremony at the SHAV Convention at the Downtown Richmond Marriott in 2026. What a wonderful time to be honored – at the annual gathering of our peers!

SHAV has presented the award of Fellow since our inception, and has collaborated with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHF) in identifying the State Clinical Achievement Award (DiCarlo Award) since the 1980s. More recently, we have found it important to recognize those who are new to or entering the profession. These awards are a Student Leadership Award and an Early Career Professional Award. You will find the criteria for each award below.

Persons submitting a nomination should complete the nomination form, a letter of recommendation from the nominator, and two additional letters of recommendation by SHAV members. Please refer to the Top 5 Tips for Awards Nomination Letters webpage for assistance. The deadline for submission is January 9, 2026.

Fellow:

●     Member of SHAV.

●     Active participant in the professions of audiology and/or speech-language pathology for not less than five years.

●     Outstanding contribution the SHAV through service on committees, the Board of Directors, or other significant capacity.

●     Outstanding contribution to the professions in at least two of these areas: clinical service, academic or clinical teaching, research and publications that contribute to the knowledge of the field, and administrative service.

State Clinical Achievement and the nominee for the ASHF DiCarlo Award:

●     Member of SHAV.

●     Demonstrated advancement of knowledge in clinical practice as evidenced by significant recent accomplishment within the past six years in audiology and/or speech-language pathology. The accomplishment must be specific, well defined, and clearly within the time limit of the last six years. This is not considered a lifetime achievement.

More information can be found here:  https://www.ashfoundation.org/apply/louis-dicarlo-award-for-recent-clinical-achievement-recipients/

Outstanding Student Leader:

●     Member of the National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association and/or Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) (including the local chapter).

●     Active participant in NSSLHA and/or SAA for not less than 18 months.

●     Member of SHAV

●     Outstanding contributor to local or national NSSLHA/SAA or to SHAV.

Early Career Professional:

●     Member of SHAV.

●     Engaged in the profession for 10 years or less.

●     Demonstrated the advancement of knowledge in clinical practice or research as evidenced by significant accomplishment within the past five years in audiology or speech-language pathology.

CLICK HERE for the nominations form.

Procedures:

Persons submitting a nomination shall complete the nomination form, a letter of recommendation from the nominator, and two additional letters of recommendation. The due date shall be posted on the SHAV website and in the weekly emails.

Mark your calendar to celebrate the achievements of this year’s nominees at the SHAV Convention on Saturday, March 22.

Please contact any of the members of the Honors Committee with questions. Thank you for your assistance in recognizing the excellence among us!

Ed Vann, Chair, cev2slp@gmail.com

Gabrielle DeFazio, gabrielle.defazio@gmail.com

Johanna Klein, jklein@rockingham.k12.va.us

Lissa Power-deFur, powerdefurea@longwood.edu

Jackie Ragland, raglandjacquelyn@gmail.com

Darlene Robke, darlenerobke@hotmail.com