By HEIDI KNAKE
UNK Communications
KEARNEY – In 2016, Jessica Clark watched her late husband slowly lose the ability to communicate after a brain tumor left him with aphasia, which affected his ability to formulate words.
Unfortunately, finding someone who could help proved to be difficult.
Even living in Palmer, one of Alaska’s more populated communities, Clark and her family waited four months to get an appointment with a speech-language pathologist.
“Once he got in, she gave us the gift of being able to have some communication for the last part of his life,” Clark said.
Years later, that experience inspired Clark to become the kind of professional her family once struggled to find.
She’s one of two students currently pursuing a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Nebraska at Kearney through a collaboration with the University of Alaska Anchorage. The partnership was established to address the growing workforce shortage of SLPs in Alaska.
“There’s a really high need for speech-language pathologists across the nation, especially when you get into lower-populated areas like Alaska and Nebraska,” said Laura Moody, director of clinical education for UNK’s SLP program.
The need extends beyond hospitals and clinics. According to the 2024 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association schools survey, nearly 79% of respondents reported more SLP job openings than available professionals.
“There’s a huge need in Alaska’s school systems,” said recent UNK graduate Janet Tague of Wasilla, Alaska. “Some schools haven’t had somebody apply for an in-person position in two years, leaving most schools to utilize online SLPs through Zoom sessions.”
Laura Walsh, a first-year student from Juneau who currently works in Alaska’s school system, sees the shortage firsthand.
“There’s only one SLP in our entire school district for kindergarten through 12th grade who is in person,” she said. “The rest of them are offered through telehealth.”
Meeting Students Where They Are
While Alaska faces a significant shortage of SLPs, students also face another challenge.
UAA is the only university in Alaska that offers SLP courses, and it’s only available as a minor. While the bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in SLP prepares students for graduate study, there’s no master’s program offered in the state – and that degree is a requirement for SLP licensure.
To help students earn their master’s degree, UAA has formal partnerships and informal collaborations with other schools. UNK, located about 3,300 miles away, is one of those schools. Because UNK’s SLP program is offered fully online, students can remain in Alaska while completing graduate coursework.
“UNK culturally is most similar to UAA in that it’s flexible and the faculty are really caring and personable, which we were used to at UAA,” Clark said.
UNK’s SLP program has a strong focus on getting students in classrooms and clinical settings to gain hands-on experience through four semesters of clinicals and two internships, which online students complete in their own communities.
This is where the collaboration extends beyond academics.
UNK provides graduate instruction while UAA uses its established relationships with schools and clinics throughout Alaska to coordinate students’ clinical placements.
“They already have those local relationships,” Moody said. “Our students get the benefit of UAA’s established clinical partners while also receiving the master’s degree and coursework from UNK.”
Tague said the arrangement removed one of the biggest stresses of graduate school.
“It has been a huge blessing,” she said. “A lot of the other online students have struggled to find their placements, but because of the collaboration, UAA has done all of the arrangements for me.”
Building Connections Across the Country
Although students complete nearly all of the program online, each cohort travels to Kearney for a one-week, in-person residency during the first summer of the three-year program.
During the week, students work alongside faculty while serving children attending UNK’s Loper Launch summer camp, giving them valuable clinical experience before returning home for internships and practicum placements.
“It’s hard for people to get to the middle of Nebraska, especially from Alaska,” Moody said. “But the students really enjoy meeting their cohort. They know each other in an online sense, and when they get here someone always says, ‘I feel like I already know these people.'”
Walsh admitted making the trip to Nebraska felt intimidating.
“It was very daunting to come here,” she said. “But now we’re here and we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this has been fun. I don’t want to leave.'”
By the end of the week, she had experienced one of the moments every future SLP hopes for. Working one-on-one with the same camper all week, she heard the child correctly produce the speech sound they had been practicing.
“It was pretty cool,” Walsh said with a smile. “I’ll remember that.”
“That just happened to me today with my camper,” Clark added joyfully.
Beyond clinical experience, the week helped students build relationships that stretch well beyond Nebraska.
“There’s a real sense of knowing I will probably talk – even just professionally forever – with some of the people we’ve met this week,” Clark said.
Coming Full Circle
The collaboration is already paying off.
This summer, Tague became the second UAA student to graduate from UNK’s SLP program.
And she’s already making a difference in her community. She recently accepted a position at Maple Springs, a skilled nursing facility in Wasilla, where she will specialize in swallowing therapy and cognitive communication.
“I’m really excited to work at Maple Springs,” she said. “It’s kind of crazy after all these years to be like, ‘I would really love to do this work,’ and to see that actually coming to fruition is pretty cool.”
Seven years ago, Tague took the first step toward that goal. As a busy mother of four, she credits the program’s flexibility for making graduate school possible.
“A lot of other programs require you to be on campus for six weeks or go once a year,” she said. “That wasn’t going to be feasible for my family. I was trying to find some place that wasn’t super expensive and a program that was going to be doable for my family – and for me, that was UNK.”
Clark and Walsh both expect to graduate in 2028.
For Moody, that’s the greatest measure of the collaboration’s success.
“I enjoy seeing the students achieve their dreams of becoming speech-language pathologists and knowing how many individuals they’re out there helping,” she said. “It’s such an impactful field, and we know there are so many needs out there that aren’t being met.”
