Dr. Katz Receives 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award

Lauren A. Katz '95, PhD, CCC-SLP, is the 2012 recipient of the Bette Ann Harris Distinguished Alumni Award. The award, created in 2005, is given annually to an alumnus or alumna who graduated ten or more years ago, and who has demonstrated exceptional leadership, achievement, and service in advancing health care.

Named in honor of the Institute’s first graduate, it is the highest form of recognition awarded to a graduate of the school. Since graduating from the Institute’s Communication Sciences and Disorders program in 1995, Dr. Katz earned her PhD from the University of Michigan, where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship.

She is currently a member of the faculty at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she led the establishment of a reading clinic to help children and adults with reading and writing disorders. Her research in the area of language and literacy development has propelled her to national prominence, leading a visionary cadre of speech-language pathologists in developing new interventions for children and adults with communication difficulties.

Dr. Katz has published extensively and presented her work to numerous national and international audiences. As one of her nominators remarked, “Lauren exemplifies the best of the Institute’s graduates who have become leaders, scholarly thinkers, and committed practitioners who are influencing and changing the field of speech-language pathology.”

The Bette Ann Harris Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest form of recognition awarded to a graduate of the Institute, and is named in honor of the Institute’s first graduate who continues to serve the Institute today as associate provost for academic affairs and professor of Physical Therapy.

The award is given to an alumna or alumnus who graduated ten or more years ago, and who has demonstrated exceptional leadership, achievement and service in advancing health care through the professions and in support of the mission of the MGH Institute in one or more of the following ways:

  • Expanding and refining the scientific basis for clinical practice through research and scholarship
  • Contributing to new models of practice to foster provision of effective, affordable and ethical health care
  • Contributing significantly to advancing the mission, reputation and standards of the MGH Institute

The Board of Trustees established the award in 2005 in recognition of the Institute's 25th commencement ceremony that year, and it is now an annual tradition.

Read more on the MGH Institutes of Health Professions website.