Communication Sciences and Disorders Program Honors Reeves With 'Mentor of Year' Award

Courtesy of Marla Reeves

Marla Reeves, M.S., CCC-SLP

In order to prepare its graduate students to become effective speech-language pathologists in Northwest Arkansas, throughout the state of Arkansas and beyond, the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program sends the students into the medical and educational community throughout the state for hands-on experiential learning. This model is critical to the students' knowledge and skill development, and is a major aspect of the program's graduate training.

This training model is only made possible through partnerships with speech-language pathologists in Northwest Arkansas and other regions of the state. When entering into these partnerships, Arkansas's strongest speech-language pathologists agree to mentor U of A Communication Sciences and Disorders students.

Because the program's community mentors are so crucial, each year the program awards a partner as the "Mentor of the Year." This award honors outstanding mentorship from one community partner. Students from the graduate program nominate mentors and vote for who they believe to be most deserving of the honor.

This year, POST 0218 Pediatric Therapies' Marla Reeves has been named the "Mentor of the Year" for the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program. Reeves is a highly effective speech-language pathologist and mentor, and the U of A students have learned a great deal under her mentorship.

Reeves is celebrating 10 years as a speech-language pathologist this May. She received her undergraduate degree at the U of A, where she minored in Spanish, and her graduate degree at Northeastern State University. Reeves worked for Rogers Public Schools for seven years while working at out-patient pediatric clinics throughout that time and has been full-time at POST Pediatric Therapies in Rogers for three years.

Reeves often reminds her mentee students, "The field of speech-language pathology has a lot of heart, and if you lead from a place of love for your clients and their families, you can never go wrong." One graduate student stated that "Marla was such an encouraging supervisor who gave feedback in a positive way and conducted herself with clients and parents in a compassionate and caring way that inspires me daily."

Congratulations to Marla Reeves on being awarded the 2021 "Mentor of the Year" by the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program.