Contact: Bruce Conley, Associate Director of College Relations
Phone: (605) 274-5526
Fax: (605) 274-4903
www.augie.edu

May 25, 2005

Augustana Receives Collaboration Award from Center for Disabilities

SIOUX FALLS - Augustana College is the recipient of The Collaboration Award presented by the Center for Disabilities at the USD School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The award is presented annually to a person or program that, through their partnership has greatly helped further the mission of the Center.

Augustana received the 2005 award for the Education Department’s hosting the Center’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Clinic and its Autism and Related Disorders Clinic in the Madsen Center’s testing facilities. The clinics meet in the Madsen Center four to six times each month to provide multi faceted evaluations for children, youth, and adults who may have FASD or AU. Approximately 50 Augustana special education, deaf education, and communication disorders majors put in almost 200 hours observing the clinics’ assessments, staffings, and meetings with parents and school district representatives. The Education Department has also had guest speakers from the clinic faculty present in classes and has participated in training conducted by the clinic faculty.

Dr. Joan Bacon, associate professor of special education, is Augustana’s site coordinator for the clinics.

The citation received by Augustana from the Center reads in part:

Our partnership with Augustana College has been significant to our clinical services area. Because of the generosity of Augustana College and its commitment to the Center for the use of clinic rooms, our clinical services are greatly enhanced. Both of the Center’s Autism and Related Disorders Clinic as well as the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Clinic have been able to more effectively serve families through our partnership with Augustana and the use of the clinical space to us for these clinics.

We would especially like to thank Bob Kiner for first meeting with us an assisting with getting this agreement in place. Also a special thanks to Joan Bacon, who has worked diligently on securing testing space for clinics as well as allowing students to attend the clinics in order to develop a better understanding of the interdisciplinary process and team collaboration. Without this partnership, our clinics would not operate in an effective and efficient manner nor would we have the convenience of two-way mirrors allowing families and students to observe the diagnostic process.