Faculty & Staff Directory

 FACULTY PROFILE

"As Dean, I oversee seven academic departments, housing 15 degree programs, approximately 175 faculty, instructors, and staff. During the years I have served in this role, I have supervised and facilitated multiple accreditation site visits in a variety of health and human services disciplines (CAA, CAPTE, ACOTE, CSWE, CAHME and ACEN). Most recently, I have led the development of an updated strategic plan that is coordinated with the GSU Strategic Plan 2020-2025, and includes college-wide goals, objectives, and key performance indicators that form a framework for each academic department’s strategic plan. These efforts focus our college on evaluating how well we are meeting our mission and vision, and engaging in continuous improvement processes.

I currently hold rank as full professor in the Department of Communication Disorders, and continue to be an active researcher, with many peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and invited presentations stemming from the treatment research I completed with the support of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation and the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders. As Principle Investigator for a multi-year training and education collaboration funded by the National Cancer Institute, I have leveraged my success in funding research to the advantage of faculty and students by enhancing training and mentoring of individuals from underrepresented communities who are pursuing careers in health care and research. Extramural funding has been transformational in terms of developing meaningful community partnerships and initiatives with sustainable impact. Having the experience and capacity to secure such funding allows me to harness institutional leaders and programs together to achieve common aims, such as increasing the diversity and retention of our students entering health professions.

I served as chair of the Department of Communication Disorders at Governors State University for nearly five years, supervising seven full-time faculty, numerous part-time instructors, and one office administrator; managing delivery of the bachelor's and master’s degree programs; serving as program director for the accredited master's degree program; and delivering programs to approximately 200 students annually.  During my leadership, our master’s program was successful in being reaccredited for eight years by the Council on Academic Accreditation of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. I led the faculty through a strategic planning process that included re-envisioning the mission of each program and developing a comprehensive curriculum redesign plan.

Although my roles and experiences have varied since beginning a career in higher education, I have been consistently dedicated to improving the quality of services provided – whether to patients/clients, students, faculty, or administrators. I was drawn to GSU because of its unique mission to provide a high-quality education to communities that are underserved and underrepresented in the areas of health and education, and in so doing, make a difference in the lives of the people in our region.

GSU combines a dynamic environment with a unique mission. The institution’s commitment to civic engagement and serving the needs of the surrounding community make it a very satisfying place to work. I am continually inspired by our committed students and my creative, energetic colleagues."

- Catherine Balthazar, Ph.D.

Researchgate Profile

PUBLICATIONS

Balthazar, C.H., and Vendrely, A.M.(2021, Eds.).Rehabilitation Research, 6^th Edition. Elsevier.

Balthazar, C.H., Ebbels, S.E., and Zwitserlood, R.M. (2020). Syntactic intervention for developmental language disorder. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 51, 226-246.

Balthazar, C.H., and Scott, C.M.(2018). Targeting Complex Sentences in Older School Children with Specific Language Impairment: Results from an Early Phase Treatment Study.Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research61, 1-16. PMID: 25821532.

Balthazar, C.H., and Scott, C.M. (2017). Complex sentence intervention. In: R. McCauley, M. Fey, and R. Gillam (Eds.). Treatment of Language Disorders, 2^nd Edition.Baltimore:Paul H. Brookes.

Balthazar, C. H., and Scott, C. M. (2014). The place of syntax in school age language assessment and intervention. In: T. Ukrainetz (Ed.), Sschool age Language Intervention: Principles and Procedures for Oral and Written Language Success. Pro-Ed.

Balthazar, C.H., and Scott, C. (2007). Intervention for Syntax and Morphology.  In Kamhi, A. G., Masterson, J. J., and Apel, K. (Eds.) Clinical Decision Making in Developmental Language Disorders.  Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Balthazar, C. H. (2003).  The word length effect in children with language impairment.  Journal of Communication Disorders, 36, 487-505. PMID: 12967741.

Scott, C.M., and Balthazar, C.H. (2010).  The grammar of information: Challenges for older students with language impairments.  Topics in Language Disorders, 30, 288-307. PMID: 23596344.

Scott, C.M., and Balthazar, C.H. (2013).  The role of complex sentence knowledge in children with reading and writing difficulties. Perspectives on language and literacy, 39 (3), 18-26. PMID: 25821532.

PEER-REVIEWED ABSTRACTS, PRESENTATIONS AND POSTERS

Balthazar, C. H. (2010, April). Brown’s stages and beyond: Grammatical intervention for children with or at-risk for language and language-related learning disabilities.  Invited presentation for Therapy Care, Incorporated inservice for speech-language pathologists, Warrenville, IL.

Balthazar, C.H., Armstrong, J., Kempster, G., and Koonce, N.M. (2011, February). Clinical research and evidence-based practice roundtable for slps.Presented at the annual convention of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rosemont, IL.

Balthazar, C. H., Bonner, J., Hughes, S., and Nigam, R. (2010, February).Clinical research collaboration roundtable. Presented at the annual convention of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rosemont, IL.

Balthazar, C.H., Ebert, K.D., Fey, M., Gillam, R. B., Gillam, S.L., Robey, R. and Wendt, O. (2016, November). Clinical significance and effect size for single subject experimental designs: Interpreting Effects of language intervention. Panel presented at the Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Philadelphia, PA.

Balthazar, C. H., Koonce, N.M., and Scott, C. M. (2011, June). An exploration of the relationship of three experimental measures of complex sentence knowledge to CELF4 scores. Poster presented at the Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.

Balthazar, C. H., and Scott, C. M. (2013, June). Complex sentence productions of ten- to fourteen-year-old students with and without language impairment on a written sentence-combining task. Poster presentation at the Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI

Balthazar, C. H., and Scott C. M. (2011, November). Designing interventions for complex language: General frameworks and specific individuals. Presented at the Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, San Diego, CA.

Balthazar, C.H., and Watson, K.S. (2016, June). The GUIDE cancer research and training project. Poster presented at the National Cancer Institute’s Conference on Programs to Advance Cancer Health Equity, Gaithersburg, MD.

Comer-Hagans, D., Ramamonjiarivelo, Z., Spencer, S., Chukwudozie, I. B., Henderson, V., Watson, K. S., Balthazar, C.H., Evans, R., Winn, R. A., Odoms-Young, A., and Hoskins, K. (2017, October). Motivating African American Women with Hereditary Breast Cancer Risk to Participate in Genetic Counseling. Abstract presented at the American Association of Cancer Researchers Tenth Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, Atlanta, GA.

Ramamonjiarivelo, Z., Comer-Hagans, D., Chukwudozie, I. B., Spencer, S., Henderson, V., Pittendrigh, B., Bello-Bravo, J., Watson, K.S., Balthazar, C. H., Evans, R., Winn, R. A., Odoms-Young, A., and Hoskins, K. (2017, October). Creating a mobile device-based educational animation for African American women with hereditary breast cancer risk. Abstract presented at the American Association of Cancer Researchers Tenth Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, Atlanta, GA.

Scott, C.M., Balthazar, C.H., and Nelson, N. (2017, November). Targets, Time, and Treatments for Syntax Problems in Older Students with Language Disorders. Presentation at the Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Los Angeles, CA.

Scott, C. M., and Balthazar, C. H. (2012, November). Building complex language skills in school-age students with language learning disorders. Invited presentation to Plainfield School District #202.Plainfield, IL.

Scott, C. M., Balthazar, C. H., and Koonce, N. M. (2010, November). Assessing and treating sentence complexity found in expository texts. Presented at the Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Philadelphia, PA.

Scott, C. M., and Balthazar, C.H. (2009, June). Building complex sentences: An intervention feasibility study for school-age children with oral and written language disorders. Poster presented at the Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.

Watson, K. S., Matthews, A.P., Hoskins, K, Evans, R, Chukwudozie, I. B., Rhodes, S., Martinez, E., Fitzgibbon, M. L., Balthazar, C. H., and Winn, R. A. (2017, October). Building Capacity to Conduct Cancer Disparities Research: Progress and Evaluation of NCI CRCHD P20 GUIDE Project. Abstract presented at the American Association of Cancer Researchers Tenth Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, Atlanta, GA.

Zwitserlood, R., Balthazar, C.H., Ebbels, S., and Bruinsma, G. (2018, October). Grammar intervention in Developmental Language Disorders: active ingredients and future research. Panel presented at the 17^th International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Malta.

GRANTS & AWARDS

HONORS

Alpha Eta Honor Society / Gamma Psi Upsilon Chapter

Faculty Excellence Award / Governors State University