Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders founding chair retires, new chair steps into role
When Fang-Ling Lu, PhD, CCC-SLP, FASAHP, learned in 2017 that the School of Health Professions was seeking a leader to build a graduate-level speech-language pathology program, she saw an opportunity to create a medically focused program that would significantly increase the number of highly trained speech-language pathologists in the region.
“This is like a dream job,” Lu recalled thinking. At the time, she was graduate program director in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at The University of North Texas.
Nine years later, Lu has retired as founding chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, whose Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology has established a strong reputation since welcoming its first cohort of students in January 2018. Lu’s retirement took effect Aug. 15.
“We produce really competent clinicians and they are going to thrive continuously,” Lu said of the program’s impact on the area’s supply of speech-language pathologists. She said noted that the department collaborates with community partners to provide summer outreach programs to fill gaps in services for underserved populations. “We have planted our footprint,” she said.
New department chair: Cathy Torrington Eaton, PhD, CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor Cathy Torrington Eaton, PhD, CCC-SLP, was appointed department chair effective Aug. 17. Eaton, who joined the department faculty in 2020, received a 2025 Presidential Excellence Award for Teaching Excellence–Emerging. Her promotion to associate professor will take effect Sept. 1.
“Thanks to Dr. Lu, I am inheriting a truly great department,” Eaton said. “We have a strong, collaborative faculty that will continue striving to make lives better through excellence in teaching the next generation of evidence-based clinicians, conducting and disseminating impactful research in speech-language pathology, and providing or enhancing patient-centered care within the San Antonio community and more broadly.”
In a retirement celebration hosted this summer by the School of Health Professions, Dean David Shelledy, PhD, described Lu’s impact.
“When Ling arrived, there was no program, no department, no curriculum, no students, no faculty and no facilities,” Shelledy said. “She built our Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from the ground up — designing the curriculum, hiring the faculty and recruiting our very first cohort of students.”
Lu also launched the Graduate Certificate in Communication Sciences and Disorders, a leveling program designed for students seeking to apply to graduate speech-language pathology programs.
The Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program debuted in the top half of speech-language pathology programs in the 2025 U.S. News and World Report rankings, the first year the program was eligible to be ranked. “To see a brand-new program debut in the U.S. News and World Report rankings at 139 out of 283 — placing it in the top 49% — is a testament to the standard of excellence Ling established,” Shelledy said.