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The Northern Illinois University Alumni Association recently honored Tertia "Abby" Jeppson, research speech-language pathologist, Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment, with the 2024 Outstanding Young Alumna Award.
Eligible alumni graduated from Northern Illinois University in the past 10 years, are age 35 or under and have shown outstanding promise and success in a professional career. Previously, Abby also has been honored by her alma mater with its Outstanding SLP Alumni Award, given by NIU’s College of Health and Human Sciences in June 2024.
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A certified trainer in Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA), a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) and a published researcher, Abby started at SRAlab in 2018 at Homewood DayRehab before joining the Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment as a research SLP in 2022. She credits her time at NIU for solidifying her career path.
“At NIU, I found confidence in myself that I did not have previously with academics and extracurricular activities,” she said. “Despite outwardly presenting as confident, I was very self-critical. Since then, I have learned self-love and kindness that I also extend to others. I hope my legacy is predominantly based on characteristics of kindness and respect toward diversity, humility and equity.”
In addition to patient care, Abby is passionate about health equity: she completed a graduate certificate in Health Disparities Research at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2022 with the support of SRAlab's tuition reimbursement program. Using the knowledge and skills from this certificate program, Abby is a co-leader of the Health Equity Subcommittee for the IDEA Council, a member of the SLP Cultural Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (CDIAR) taskforce, and applies a health equity focus to research.