Janna joined the Emerge Board of Directors in January 2017. She is a professor at LSU in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She also directs the Language and Development Disorders Lab where she and her students study the nature of child language development and disorders within the context of different dialects of English and poverty, testing methods, caregiver education and prevention practices.
We are so happy to have her expertise as we continue to grow! Here is a brief Q&A to learn more about Janna.
When did you first hear about The Emerge Center?
When I came to LSU in 1992, I became involved with the Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation. The Foundation had little space for LSU student training and research. I mentored a few students through theses at the Foundation, and the clinical services and student training provided by the Foundation were excellent, but there was no space for us to do anything programmatic, collaborative, or large-scale. The building of The Emerge Center and their increased collaborations with LSU have been game changers. I now showcase Emerge when talking to families in need of services, prospective LSU students interested in children with developmental disabilities, and colleagues across the country who want to conduct multi-site, large-scale studies of children with autism and other speech and language disorders.
What do you wish more people knew about Emerge?
For children with autism and other developmental language disorders, Emerge is unlike any other service provider in Baton Rouge. Emerge provides high quality and evidence-based therapies through classroom, group, and individual formats, and the many options at Emerge allow treatment plans to change as children make progress. Their mission, unique integration of services, and extensive fund raising efforts also allow children to get more services and support than most families can afford.
What do you see as Emerge’s primary value as an organization?
For families, the value is access to many if not all services their child needs by a cadre of experts who are working in a building that was specifically designed for children with autism and other speech and language disorders. For Baton Rouge and the state of Louisiana, Emerge serves as a model program for others to follow. As a model program, Emerge also offers professionals excellent training and researchers a place to study best practice methods.
