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If there is power in words, someone who enables another to speak, must be a superpower. ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University has such a superpower. Lekeitha Morris, associate professor in the Department of Speech and Health Sciences. Lekeitha empowers individuals with communication disorders to communicate and best of all, she shares her superpower with her students.

Prior to joining the LU community in 2018, Lekeitha was the department chairperson and associate professor of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Delta State University, an undergraduate only program for the field of speech-language pathology.

“For individuals to enter the profession of speech-language pathology, they have to possess a master’s degree,” said Lekeitha. “I came to LU to be able broaden my skills as a faculty member and researcher.  LU has afforded me the opportunity to train graduate students in the traditional classroom and in clinical education.  After learning more about the community, it was also evident that I would also be able to pursue my passion of working with families to empower their children as it relates to language and literacy development.”

The Texarkana native attended the University of Central Arkansas originally seeking a degree in occupational therapy, but a faculty member in English introduced her to speech-language pathology.

“After taking ‘Introduction to Communication Disorders,’ I fell in love with it. I became passionate about the field and wanted to learn more. Realizing that communication is one of the greatest gifts that we possess as humans,  I couldn't think of anything I would enjoy better. To pursue that field of study and be able to empower people with the ability to communicate, seemed like it would be such a rewarding profession.”

Lekeitha earned her bachelor and master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Central Arkansas and her Ph.D. in communication disorders from Louisiana State University. (She wears Cardinal red but is still a big Tiger fan.) The speech-language pathology professor who introduced her to her passion and career choice, Dee Lance is still her mentor, and has been instrumental throughout Lekeitha's career.  Lekeitha still loves what she does day to day and cannot see herself in any other profession.

“To have a child say to their mom for the first time, ‘mommy,’ that level of reward that you feel as a professional is awesome. This same level of reward is seen in our adult population as well.  We work with individuals across the lifespan so to work with a grandmother who has had a stroke and cannot communicate, to  be the person to help that family and that person to communicate, it’s just so powerful and rewarding and you know you are changing families' quality of life.”

Mentoring is very important to Lekeitha and she believes faculty have an integral role in helping students to develop and reach their potential in their careers of choice.  Lekeitha has great respect for her first professional mentor, Lance, and strives to be that type of mentor to the students she encounters at LU and beyond.  She encourages students, models work ethic and introduces students to the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology.

She is very active in trying to address the shortage of underrepresented students into the profession through recruiting and mentoring.  As a Black woman in speech-language pathology, she wants other underrepresented groups of students to know that if she can do it, so can they.  She understands the power of seeing one's self represented in the profession and her passion.

“To be a member of an underrepresented group in this profession, I think gives me a lot of responsibility to empower other students of color and say ‘you can do this;’ ‘if I can do this, you can do it.’ There’s a quote that says, basically, ‘it’s hard to be what you can’t see.’ I try to be that voice and representation for all students but specifically students of color to encourage them and let them know about speech-language pathology. Once they are in the undergraduate or graduate program, I try to be that mentor who is there for support and has the expectation that they will be successful.”

Monica Bellon-Harn, department chair and professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and Lekeitha were selected to present information about cross-cultural peer mentoring to other members of their profession earlier this month. During a seminar hosted by Teaching and Learning in the Communication Science and Disorders, the team shared how to use cross-cultural peer mentoring in Communication Sciences and Disorder Education to address racism in communication sciences and disorders education. They also spoke about how faculty can work to ensure they are not barriers to students as they matriculate through programs.  This concept can be applied to any discipline.

Combatting racism in the field of speech-language pathology is one of Lekeitha’s missions. In addition to teaching undergraduate courses, including language acquisition and childhood language disorders, as well as a graduate-level class, preschool language disorders, she is planning to teach “Anti-racism in Speech-Language Pathology” in the spring of 2021.

“Everything I teach is in my area of expertise. It’s really nice to be part of a faculty in which we are able to teach what we love. We all teach in areas we do research in and that we’re passionate about. I appreciate that about our program here.”

Lekeitha also is involved in clinical training where she instructs students to implement programs to prevent childhood language disorders, another one of her missions. While some children are born with communication deficits, other children are at risk for disorders based on environmental factors.

“There are factors that place children at-risk for language impairments.  For example, children who are abused or in foster care or are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may not hear as much language as other children on a day-to-day basis.”

Through language-enriched programs, some childhood communication disorders can be prevented. Lekeitha trains students to implement these programs in the community during their clinical training. Lekeitha, along with Dr. Harn, have developed ‘Success with Stories,’ which empowers parents to create language-rich environments using books.

“’Success with Stories’ is a program that addresses storybook reading. We talk about how to engage with a book and why every reading session doesn’t have to be a front-cover to back-cover reading and why reading should be fun and engaging. We also talk about storytelling and how it can be used to create language.”

One of Lekeitha’s students used “Success with Stories” in her Summer Undergraduate Research Project by collecting feedback and data from preschool parents who participated in the program. The student was able to analyze data and determine that parents were satisfied with “Success with Stories” and found the program to be very useful and parent friendly.  Lekeitha is glad parents found value in the program and also enjoyed working with the student to complete this research over the summer.

“Working diligently with my student on the SURF project in the midst of all this (the pandemic) and being able to be productive with students and work with family members or caregivers is what grounds me. What I enjoy most about being a faculty member is creating this broader impact.  Through training students whether in the classroom, during clinical training or in research passing on that knowledge goes beyond any of the Individual work that I do. They will use what I am teaching them and so many more people will be impacted.”

Although Lekeitha continued her normal work routine throughout the pandemic, her home life strayed a bit off-center. Friday night sleepovers have become the new normal at the Morris home.

“Basically, my kids get to sleep in my room and they get to eat popcorn in my bed – like that’s a no-no. We didn’t do that before the pandemic but now my son, on Friday mornings, when he wakes up says, ‘It’s Friday, we get to have our sleepover.’ They love it, and I love it.”

Friday night sleepovers are an example of a routine activity parents can use as teachable language-enriching moment. Lekeitha plans to integrate the example of the Friday night sleepover into her language acquisition course work this fall. There's so much to talk about during a Friday night sleepover. 

“That’s important when working with families who have so many things to do on a day-to-day basis. I can tell a mom or a dad, how to take a regular routine and turn it into a language-enriching opportunity. These real-life situations many times are the things I teach my students about that they haven’t necessarily thought about. They can share that with parents who never thought that washing dishes could be a language-enriching opportunity or washing your car or walking to the mailbox.”

Caregiver training is Lekeitha’s passion but what’s even more thrilling than helping a parent or a loved one learn to communicate with a child or family member is seeing one of her struggling students make it to the finish line.

“Encouraging students that they can do this, watching them graduate and then knowing they are working with families and instilling the love of education in the little bitty preschool kids they are working with, that makes me proud of the impact I have been able to have on the students I’ve worked with over the years.”