Faculty member in San Jose State’s Connie L. Lurie College of Education’s Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences have received two grants this fall.

From left, Associate Professor Wendy Quach, Professor June McCullough, Assistant Professor Pei-Tzu Tsai and Professor Emeritus Gloria Weddington received U.S. Department of Education grants.

The first award, from the Office of Special Education at the United States Department of Education, will provide $1.25 million over five years for Project Tapestry, a program designed to alleviate severe shortages in culturally-competent speech-language pathologists in California schools. The project will be directed by Associate Professor Wendy Quach, with Assistant Professor Pei-Tzu Tsai serving as project coordinator. The grant supports a collaborative effort among San Jose State University faculty, community experts, and school professionals throughout Silicon Valley. Project Tapestry will support 30 graduate student scholars enrolled in the SJSU speech-language pathology master’s degree program who will participate in culturally-responsive assessment and intervention for children with communication disabilities.

The second award, also for $1.25 million over five years from the Office of Special Education at the United States Department of Education, is entitled Project EPICS. This grant will support a partnership between San Jose State University and the University of Guam to provide much needed graduate training in speech-language pathology to serve the residents of the Pacific Islands. Project EPICS will be co-directed by Associate Professor Wendy Quach and Professor June McCullough, with Professor Emeritus Gloria Weddington serving as the project coordinator.