Professor Lisa Hiley Awarded ROC the Future Advocacy for Children Award
Nazareth College Communication Sciences and Disorders Assistant Professor Lisa Hiley, Ph.D., is this year's recipient of ROC the Future's Jacque Cady Annual Advocacy for Children Award. This award recognizes an individual for extraordinary accomplishment in advancing public policy or funding decisions for the benefit of Rochester's children. As part of the prestigious award, Hiley was able to choose Rochester Hearing & Speech, where she worked before coming to Nazareth, to receive a $5,000 donation.
Hiley, who was honored during the first-ever virtual ROC the Future State of the Children address in late November, has been a tireless advocate for children on many fronts throughout her career. In her time at Nazareth College she has improved comprehensive screening/services and streamlined access to services for children at risk, prepared current and future generations of professionals to be culturally-sensitive educators and service providers who are ready to drive systemic change, and has collaborated creatively in community-wide efforts to serve and advocate for children and their families.
"I am honored to receive this recognition and beyond grateful for all those at Nazareth and throughout the Rochester community I have had the pleasure to learn from and work with," said Hiley '02, who earned her bachelor's in communication sciences and disorders from Nazareth before earning her master's at Penn State, and her Ph.D. at University of Rochester. "Through shared commitments and shared purpose we are collaboratively creating or re-defining spaces, opportunities, and systems that are more accessible and equitable for all children and their families. This work is not possible without partnership, passion, and purpose and I must thank my colleagues and friends who bring each of those to the community every day on behalf of Rochester's children."
She has led the implementation of the GROW comprehensive screening program as part of Nazareth's engagement in the Rochester community that seeks to improve access to services.
"Under her leadership, several Nazareth departments came together to create faculty and student teams to provide hundreds of screenings of hearing, vision, dental health, language and speech, cognitive and social-emotional development. She helped develop the "gold standard" protocols for these screenings," said Cathy Rasmussen, associate dean of compliance and clinical affairs, professor of speech-language pathology and director of the York Wellness and Rehabilitation at Nazareth, who nominated Hiley for the honor.
A major recent accomplishment was Hiley's leadership of the pivot to online screenings with the advent of COVID-19. She led the collaboration to create enrichment programs for families awaiting access to early intervention services, with interprofessional developmental playgroups delivered both in-person and virtually. In addition, Lisa supervises the work of Nazareth students in UPK/EPK early childhood programs at Hillside, and a public library program for children and families in partnership with WXXI.
Hiley's work to expand and improve the preparation of professionals with early childhood expertise is a very significant component of her work. She created the new Developing Child & Family minor at Nazareth, an innovative interprofessional program with a strong systems perspective to prepare students in a wide array of education, human and health services majors. In its first year of operation, more than 70 students have declared this minor and have gained greater awareness of the needs of children in our community, advocacy, and on working collaboratively to bring about change.
"Lisa's work with GROW-Rochester is a transformative experience for our students," said Rasmussen. "She leads this work in her home department of communication sciences & disorders, but also collaborates across departments and schools to create opportunities for all students who want to work in this arena."
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Julie Long | Chief PR Officer | 585-389-2456 or jlong2@naz.edu
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Communication Sciences and Disorders Assistant Professor Lisa Hiley accepts this year's ROC the Future Jacque Cady Advocacy for Children Award during a virtual ceremony in November.