McLean Yoder Schiefelbusch Fund (MYS Fund)

Help develop the next generation of scholars who are focusing their research on the communication needs of individuals with severe disabilities! In collaboration with the ASHFoundation, the NJC is establishing The McLean Yoder Schiefelbusch Fund (MYS Fund). Our goal is to endow this ASHFoundation fund so that student scholars who are interested in the communication needs of individuals with severe disabilities can receive scholarship support while they are establishing their research agenda.

The late James McLean (University of Kansas, founding chair of the NJC), David Yoder (University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, former ASHA president and member of the NJC), and the late Richard Schiefelbusch (University of Kansas, former ASHA VP for Research and editor of the Language Intervention book series) spearheaded the development of research and practice in the area of severe communication disabilities.

Their early 1970s book on language intervention for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities laid the groundwork for the delivery of communication services and supports for individuals who previously were excluded from such services and supports. The impact of naming the fund for them honors the work of these three giants in the field and keeps a focus on research about severe communication disabilities through the ASHFoundation.

To meet our goal, we need your help! In order to endow this fund through the ASHFoundation, we must raise $100,000 by December 2023. Please consider contributing to the MYS Fund at the ASHF Individual Donor webpage. On the form, enter the amount you wish to contribute under “other” and then enter MYS Fund in the Comments box. If you already contribute to the ASHFoundation’s annual giving appeal, we hope that you will consider the MYS Fund contribution over and above your annual ASHFoundation gift that remains necessary to sustain vital support to existing programs.

The long-term objective of the MYS Fund is to use the endowment to offer a scholarship as part of the ASHF New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarships for a doctoral student (regardless of discipline) whose research focus and dissertation preparation is in the area of communication intervention and severe disabilities. If we do not reach our $100,000 goal, the monies contributed will go into the New Century Scholars program for distribution as the ASHFoundation sees fit.

Thank you for your support!