A professor who specializes in the treatment of people who stutter will be the guest speaker at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s 2016 Summer Commencement on Friday.
Dr. John A. Tetnowski is the Ben Blanco Endowed Professor in Communicative Disorders at UL Lafayette. He is also graduate coordinator for the Ph.D. program in Applied Language and Speech Sciences.
The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. in the Cajundome Convention Center exhibit hall adjacent to the Cajundome.
Tetnowski has published nearly 70 papers that have appeared in journals, book chapters, and proceedings papers. He has made over 200 presentations of his work at state, regional, national and international conferences on four continents.
In addition to conducting research, he is an active clinician whose work centers on the treatment of adults and children who stutter. He holds the American Board of Fluency and Fluency Disorders’ certification of “stuttering specialist.”
For his work and service, he has been named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, received the Louisiana Outstanding Clinical Achievement Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation and was cited as the National Stuttering Association’s Speech-Language Pathologist of the Year.
He received the 2015-16 Distinguished Professor Award presented by the UL Lafayette Foundation.
Tetnowski has mentored one of the other three stuttering specialists in Louisiana. There are only 155 stuttering specialists in the United States.
The professor has represented the University at the Compact for Diversity in Higher Education over the past two years. He has traveled to Liberia, West Africa, to assist with building schools and educating teachers and students. As a result of his work, UL Lafayette communicative disorders students raise funds to help send two Liberian students to college.
Tetnowski has served as a member of the:
• Coordinating Committee for the Special Interest Group on Fluency and Fluency Disorders for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association;
• Board of Directors for the National Stuttering Association;
• Leadership Committee for the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University;
• Editorial Board for the Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders; and
• Elder Board at Trinity Bible Church.
He is a leader of the Lafayette Chapter of the National Stuttering Association; past editor for Perspectives in Fluency and Fluency Disorders; and a reviewer for 14 professional journals. He was also a trustee of the Episcopal School of Acadiana.
Tetnowski holds a doctorate in audiology and speech pathology from Florida State University.