Lynette Austin with CSD majors during the Pre-Health Study Abroad program, Montevideo, 2012

I came to ACU to teach. When I completed my Ph.D. and informed my dissertation adviser of my next career move, he expressed concern that at a small, liberal arts university I would not have as much time as he thought I would need for research and scholarship.  What he didn’t know was that for me it had always been about the teaching–the return to school 17 years after completing a master’s degree, the perseverance through 4.5 years of study while still working, the completion of a challenging dissertation– I did these things so that I could teach.  I thoroughly enjoyed my 20 years of clinical practice (including those that were spent in practice in Argentina)–but I knew the time had come to equip myself to share the joy and the sense of mission that I found in the practice of speech-language pathology.  As I started doctoral studies in 2003, I did not know that a position would become available at ACU; I thought that perhaps I would eventually be applying for a position at the University of Houston. But as soon as I learned that a position had opened up at ACU, my compass swung this direction.  I knew that here I would be able to not only share the joy of helping others through my field, but also, and more importantly, emphasize how we can glorify God through this service.   It is a delight to be able to talk with students about how God can use them in ministry as they work in the field of communication sciences and disorders — and  know that my colleagues here are sharing the same message.

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