Four new gifts totaling more than half a million dollars to the Callier Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas will fund services for low-income families and endow three new professorships.
The donations all came from members of the Callier Center’s board. The individual amounts of the donations were not announced.
“The university is honored to have such distinguished support for its programs at the Callier Center,” said Dr. Bert Moore, dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UTD. “Callier is one of the pre-eminent centers for communication sciences in the country, and to receive these generous gifts will enable us to have an even greater impact on behalf of individuals with communication disorders.”
Dr. Tom Campbell, Callier Center executive director, said the board members who made the gifts were responding to the strategic initiatives put forth by UTD president Dr. David E. Daniel.
“The board decided at its annual retreat to fund more professorships in the areas of communication disorders,” Dr. Campbell said.
“In addition, we wanted to find better ways to serve the community. The gift for our Callier Care Fund will allow us to serve more people in our community who need our clinical services.”
Expressing a desire to help children with hearing loss, Ruth and Dr. Ken Altshuler’s gift is to launch the Callier Care Fund, which has three important components:
• Helping families and patients receive clinical services that they otherwise could not afford.
• Supporting a scholarship for graduate students to study at the Callier Center.
• Funding clinical research projects.
A gift from Sara and David Martineau will endow a professorship in communication disorders.
Mr. Martineau made the donation in honor of Mrs. Martineau, who is president of the Callier Center board.
The university will conduct a national search to find a distinguished scholar and researcher to fill the position.
The third gift, from Emilie Schepps, will endow a professorship for hearing science.
That professorship also will require a national search, and the scholar will hold the Emilie and Phil Schepps Professorship in Hearing Science.
The fourth gift, from Howard B. and Lois C. Wolf, endowed a professorship in pediatric hearing that was recently filled by Dr. Ross Roeser, executive director emeritus at the Callier Center.
The 39-year-old Callier Center has two facilities, one on the UTD Richardson campus and one at 1966 Inwood Road, near the UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Callier and UT Southwestern work together on some research programs.
Callier Center helps Texans of all ages with communication disorders, from infants with profound hearing loss to adults who develop hearing difficulties later in life.
This past year, the Callier Center, with 187 faculty and staff members, served 7,000 patients and processed 40,000 visits to its two locations.