New faculty: Melanie Hilgers directs Speech, Hearing Center
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Melanie Hilgers’s work world brims with success stories.
For 9 years, she worked in preschool, elementary and high school classrooms as a speech-language pathologist.
“I have seen great changes in the children,” she said.
One special case was a 4th grader with autism. “What was so great was the fact that the parents weren’t trying to fix him. They accepted who he was and wanted to figure out how to maximize his potential,” she said.
“The child had great needs and the family gave great support. We worked together as a team.”
Hilgers now directs the team at K-State’s Speech and Hearing Center in the School of Family Studies and Human Services. The center’s two-fold goal is to offer quality, comprehensive services to individuals with communication impairments and to provide professional training, closely supervised by faculty, to graduate students.
“Education is my passion,” the clinic director said.
The Hilgers family consists of Melanie; her husband Jason, assistant city manager for the City of Manhattan; 13-year-old Taylor and 7-year-old Josie. A baby girl soon will join the family; due date is Aug. 30.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 and is filed under Dean's Blog.