Dr. William Ryan: A reflection of a quiet leader

Fort Worth, TX

11/1/2007

For 10 years, Dr. William Ryan has quietly and unassumingly presided over the Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic at TCU. In addition to overseeing the clinic, Ryan is an associate professor and chair of TCU’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (COSD). Under Ryan’s direction, the clinic and the department have made huge strides in keeping with the advances in technology and in the field.

Ryan began at TCU in the COSD department in 1996 and at the end of this academic year, Ryan plans to retire. “It’s time for the department to have someone else step in,” Ryan explained, “A new and younger person can bring new ideas and energize the faculty and students to new levels.”

Ryan earned his doctorate degree from Purdue University in 1971, and throughout Ryan’s career, there have been great changes in the field of speech language pathology. Sophisticated technology and advancement in knowledge of the human throat and mouth have led the way to a huge expansion in specializations and treatment options.

In fact, medical advancements in prolonging life after strokes and accidents have opened new doors in the field of rehabilitating those patients either to speak or make use of an alternative communication device. The Clinic’s other areas of specialization include childhood language disorders and speech sound disorders.

The Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic, under the direction of Ryan, provides such bilingual services to many children and families, but also provides experience for its undergraduate and graduate students who are supervised by certified clinical instructors and faculty.

The unique therapy sessions that serve approximately 100 clients each semester are possible because of the department’s bilingual-emphasis master’s program in speech-language pathology. The bilingual graduate program offered at TCU is one of approximately 15 at universities nationwide. Roughly 30 percent of TCU graduate students working in the clinic are bilingual. Thanks to Ryan’s expertise, the COSD program, with help from the clinic, helps train a substantial number of the bilingual speech-language pathologists in Tarrant County.

In 2007, Ryan was recognized as a Fort Worth Business Press Healthcare Hero, an honor that recognizes his excellence in the medical community, for his commitment to research and education in Tarrant County.

Jokingly, Ryan believes his greatest accomplishment throughout his career is “surviving this long,” but his truly outstanding achievement is seeing and helping the progression of students throughout the Communication Sciences and Disorders program that leads them to success. After all, graduate students of the TCU program have an exceptionally high pass rate, approximately 96 percent, on the national examination required for all certified speech-language pathologists. The national average pass rate for all students is roughly 78 percent.

Ryan said that the program’s excellence could be attributed to TCU’s commitment to a good faculty/student ratio as well as the accessibility of faculty to students. In his time at TCU, Ryan has felt it is easy to excel because of the highly motivated faculty, staff and students who unite for a common purpose of achieving excellence. Ryan’s fondest memories of TCU include seeing his students walk across the stage to receive their diplomas at commencement.

When asked what Ryan is planning to do in retirement, he replied, “I’m not sure. When you have been helping people all of your career it’s hard to just stop.”