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Tertia "Abby" Jeppson, research speech-language pathologist, Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment, recently was honored with the Outstanding Speech–Language Pathologist (SLP) Alumni Award from Northern Illinois University (NIU).
Abby was nominated for this award by NIU’s School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders. The Outstanding SLP Alumni Award recognizes those who have made contributions to the SLP profession as whole, and provided service to local, state or national affairs, and support of NIU.
After graduating from NIU, Abby joined Shirley Ryan AbilityLab as a full-time SLP at Homewood DayRehab in 2018. She was honored with the Early Career SLP Achievement Award in 2021 and transitioned to research in 2022, joining the Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment as a research SLP.
Abby is a certified trainer in Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA), a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) and a published researcher alongside her NIU mentor, Dr. Jamie Mayer. Additionally, 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 Shirley Ryan AbilityLab'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 I.D.E.A. Council, a member of the SLP Cultural Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (CDIAR) taskforce, and applies a health equity focus to research proposals.
“I am honored to receive this award because NIU has been very integral to where I am now. I was able to get involved in undergraduate research and had a clinical rotation at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Willowbrook — now Burr Ridge — DayRehab as a student,” said Abby. “Now at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, I am able to continue the clinical and research skills that were fostered at NIU and carry over into functional, real-world settings."