Ann W. Kummer

Dr. Ann W. Kummer retired as senior director of the Division of Speech-Language Pathology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in September 2017. Under her direction, the speech-language pathology program at Cincinnati Children’s became the largest pediatric program in the nation and one of the most respected. Dr. Kummer remains clinically and academically active as a professor of clinical pediatrics and professor of otolaryngology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and has several other adjunct positions.

Dr. Kummer has given hundreds of national and international lectures and seminars in the areas of cleft palate and craniofacial anomalies, resonance disorders, velopharyngeal dysfunction, and business practices in speech-language pathology. She has written numerous professional articles and 24 book chapters in speech pathology and medical texts. She is one of the authors of the text entitled Business Matters: A Guide for Speech-Language Pathologists (ASHA, 2004) and the author of the book entitled Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Conditions: A Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Management (4th edition, Jones & Bartlett Learning). Additionally, Dr. Kummer is the codeveloper of the Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures (SNAP) test (1996) and author of the SNAP-R (2005), which is incorporated in the Nasometer software (PENTAX Medical). She holds a patent on the nasoscope that is marketed as the Oral & Nasal Listener™ (Super Duper, Inc.) and was one of the main developers of workflow software that won the 1995 International Beacon Award through IBM/Lotus. (Derivative software is marketed by Chart Links.)

Dr. Kummer has received numerous honors and awards, including the following: Honors of the Southwestern Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association (1995); Honors of the Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association (OSLHA) (1997); Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Cincinnati (1999); Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) (2002); named one of the top 25 most influential therapists in the United States by Therapy Times (2006); Honors for Distinguished Service, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Cincinnati (2007); named one of the 10 Most Inspiring Women in Cincinnati (2007); inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, Cincinnati Chapter (2010); Distinguished Alumnus Award, College of Allied Health, University of Cincinnati (2012); Elwood Chaney Outstanding Clinician Award from the Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association (OSHLA) (2012); Annie Glenn National Leadership Award, Ohio School Speech Pathology Educational Audiology Coalition (OSSPEAC) (2014); and the Media Outreach Champion award from ASHA (2014). In 2017, she received Honors of the Association from ASHA, the highest award given by the association.