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The division, along with the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, hosts the Yoder Symposium every two years to honor Professor Emeritus David E. Yoder.

About the David E. Yoder Symposium

David Yoder
Professor Emeritus David E. Yoder

Yoder received his education at Goshen (Indiana) College, from which he received the outstanding alumnus award in 1992, and furthered his education at Northwestern University and the University of Kansas. From 1968 to 1986 he was affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he served as chairman of the Department of Communicative Disorders, head of the Communicative Disorders Section of the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development, and head of the Communication Aids and Systems Clinic. He held the title of Walker-Bascom Professor of Communicative Disorders in the Department of Communicative Disorders from 1980 to 1986.

In 1986, Dr. Yoder was recruited to become the chair of the Department of Allied Health Sciences at UNC-CH, and he served in that position from 1986-2000. In 1988, he and David Koppenhaver co-founded the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies. In 2000, Yoder retired from the University and became the executive director of the Council for Allied Health in North Carolina from which he retired in 2007.

He has authored numerous professional articles and book chapters in the area of language disorders with special needs populations. He served as the first journal editor for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and served as first president of the United States Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC). He served as panel chair for writing the Consensus Statement on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Intervention for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). He has co-edited five books and presented over 500 research papers, professional workshops, and consultations nationwide as well as in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, the Soviet Union, and New Zealand. He has served on numerous committees and boards of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and served as the association’s President in 1984. Dr. Yoder is a fellow of ASHA, in 1995 was awarded honors from the association, and he received life membership in 1999. He is also a fellow and life member of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), and a fellow of the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions.