Weston Resident Honored For Hearing Award

Dr. Robert Hillman of Weston, Associate Provost for Research, and Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, will receive the Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association award during ASHA’s annual meeting in November 2011.

The Honors of ASHA is the organization’s most prestigious award, and given to only a few members each year to recognize individuals who have been nominated because the impact of their work has “changed the course of their profession.”

“We are proud that Dr. Hillman is being recognized for his contribution to research and education, for his leadership in the subspecialty of voice disorders, and his commitment to mentoring,” said MGH InstituteProvost and Academic Vice President Alex P. Johnson, PhD, CCC-SLP.

Dr. Hillman is also Co-Director and Research Director of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and VoiceRehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School (Surgery) and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology).

Dr. Hillman, who is known nationally and internationally as a leader in the area of voice disorders and laryngeal rehabilitation, has had sustained research funding since 1984 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

His previous awards include Fellowship in ASHA; Award of Merit from Sargent College at Boston University; Editor’s Award from the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for article of highest merit 1996; Casselberry Award from the American Laryngological Association for co-authorship with Dr. Steven Zeitels of the outstanding manuscript in laryngology; and an Alumni Fellow Award from his alma mater, Pennsylvania State University.

Most recently, in 2010, Dr. Hillman received the Manuel Garcia Award from the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP). He has also been chosen to deliver the Willard R. Zemlin Lecture at ASHA's annual meeting in November where he will receive the Honors. The Zemlin Lecture and Award is given to recognize an outstanding speech scientist who has "demonstrated a record of outstanding contributions to the broad spectrum of issues concerning speech science."

Dr. Hillman joins Professor Howard Shane, PhD, CCC-SLP, as the second member of the IHP faculty to receive the Honors of ASHA award.