Lissa Power-deFur

Lissa Power-deFur has spent over two decades focusing on school-based issues for speech-language pathologists. She served as a director in Special Education and Student Services and state speech-language-hearing consultant at the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). While there, she provided technical assistance and training to speech-language pathologists, teachers, administrators and parents on special education policies and procedures, the educational impact of communication disorders, and school-based speech-language services. After leaving VDOE, she returned to higher education at Longwood University in Virginia, where she was instrumental in starting the graduate program in speech-language pathology. The program includes an Educational Settings class, which she created, and have a school placement. Lissa has published and presented on the topic of education standards and the educational relevance of communication disorders nationally. She received the ASHA Leader Outstanding Service Award for her article on Special Education Eligibility. Lissa has been active professionally, serving as Virginia’s State Education Advocacy Leader for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), as President of the Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Virginia, and as the 2014-16 ASHA Vice President for Standards and Ethics in Speech-Language Pathology.