Deryk Beal chuckles when he recalls that after he graduated from his master's program in speech-language pathology he had absolutely no intention-none whatsoever-of ever returning to university.
ISTAR's new executive director says that, although he thoroughly enjoyed his time at the University of Western Ontario, where he did an honours BA in psychology and linguistics, and at the University of Toronto, his focus was on getting out in the community to work with people with speech disorders.
Even before he entered university, Deryk, who grew up in Brantford, Ontario, had decided on a career in speech-language pathology, influenced by his experience as a volunteer at the Brantford General Hospital, where he first encountered the life-changing nature of stuttering treatment. His interest in the field was further piqued when he witnessed the trials of a close neighbour who had lost her voice box to laryngeal cancer and struggled to regain speech.
Deryk spent his first year as a speech-language pathologist with the Toronto District School Board. He then accepted a clinical position at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, and it was there that the "perfect storm" occurred that would throw him back on the shores of academia.
That storm began with his growing curiosity about the role of the brain in speech production, a curiosity further fuelled by visionary work being done at Sick Kids by neuropsychologist Dr. Donald Mabbott who was using various imaging techniques to study the impact of brain tumours on neural function. Soon Deryk was regularly staying at the hospital after hours to pursue research questions.
The final element in the tempest was a fellowship created by Sick Kids to allow clinicians to train for research. With the support of that fellowship, Deryk found himself in a full-time PhD program under the supervision of Dr. Luc De Nil at the University of Toronto.
In his U of T PhD studies and later as a post-doctoral fellow in Boston, Deryk used a host of neuroimaging tools-including structural and functional resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography-to understand how the brain differs in children and adults who stutter, as compared to their fluent-speaking counterparts. And there are indeed differences: as early as the age of seven, the development of some of the brain regions crucial for learning the efficient planning and control of speech sounds is abnormal in people who stutter.
While Deryk's research has focused on the brain, his background as a clinician gives him a broad perspective and he advocates a multi-pronged approach to the problem of stuttering. "Ideally," he says, "future research will aim to collect multiple forms of data from a large and diverse group of people who stutter and utilize the expertise of clinicians and scientists from various fields." Those fields, he says, include everything from speech-language pathology, genetics, brain science and pharmacology, to studies of the psychoeducational characteristics of people who stutter.
It was precisely ISTAR's commitment to a comprehensive approach to stuttering treatment that prompted Deryk to apply for the executive director's position, and when he was offered the job, he chose to forego the final year of his post-doc in Boston and packed up his family (wife, Maria; four-year-old daughter, Emilija; and two-year-old son, Neven) to embrace the opportunity.
Now, having spent a few weeks on the job, he praises the commitment of ISTAR's founders, Einer Boberg and Deborah Kully, as well as Marilyn Langevin and the institute's dedicated clinicians "who care deeply about what treatments work best." "Because of them," he says, "we now have this wonderful clinic that attracts people from around the world to come here for treatment, and speech pathologists all over to look to us for leadership in treating stuttering."
Not only does Deryk want to continue to build the clinical program, he wants to use its success as a tool. "Let's leverage that to look into all elements underlying stuttering, to create the interdisciplinary team approach afforded other health problems."
Although he once was eager to be done with the academic world, Deryk relishes his current opportunity. "This is really a turning point for ISTAR," he says. "In its first 25 years it developed a world-renowned reputation. I want to be part of making its next 25 years just as exciting and productive."
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