Dr. Carolyn Wiles Higdon, CCC-SLP, F-ASHA, F-NAP, professor/former department chair of University of Mississippi/ UM Medical Center, and CEO of Wiles Higdon & Associates, LLC, a private practice. Her honors include Fellow of ASHA, Fellow of NAP, Phi Kappa Phi, and Honors of Mississippi Speech and Hearing Association (MSHA) as well as MSHA Clinician of the Year. Dr. Higdon has served ASHA through the Financial Planning Board, Government Relations and Public Policy Board, Special Interest Divisions Board of Division Coordinators and the Council of Academic Accreditation, as well as serving as a CAA and JACHO site visitor, consultant to the ASHA Health Care Economics Committee, and chapter advisor to the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. Dr. Higdon is a past ASHA Board of Directors Vice President of Finance, and editor of the ASHA Special Interest Group 17 Perspectives Journal, an inter-professional journal and past. Dr. Higdon sits on the Executive Board of the SLP Academy of the National Academies of Practice, and is a past chair of CAPCSD IPP IPE Committee. Dr. Higdon's AAC focus and experience in AAC includes evaluations within public and private schools systems, consulting to public schools systems on a regular basis, completing AAC evaluations for early intervention programs in Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas as well as school-based SLPs with AAC needs identified in IEPS, consulting to law firms for individuals with assistive technology and AAC needs, as well as completing independent AAC evaluations through her private practice. Dr. Higdon was the ASHA liason to RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America) as well as the sitting SLP for the Assistive Technology Credential/RESNA. Dr. Higdon has consulted and assessed individuals with AAC needs in Costa Rica and Guyana through the Minister of Education and within the PAHO CSD program in Guyana. Dr. Higdon is a consultant to various CSD academic programs in the development of their AAC competencies for CAA accreditation. Dr. Higdon's most recent clinical emphases are focused on diversity, equity and inclusion for individuals with AAC needs.

Financial: Employed at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Higdon has research funding the William Taylor AAC Laboratory, University of Mississippi.

Non-Financial: Dr. Higdon holds volunteer positions on the American Board for AAC Specialty Certification (AB-AAC), the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders.