International Stuttering Association

Benny Ravid is the Chair and founder of AMBI, the Israel Stuttering Association. He has been an ISA Board member since 2001. He was previously head of the webmaster group of the ISA website. Benny was elected to be ISA chair on May 2007 during the 8th Congress for people who Stutter in Cavtat, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

John is an accountant and has been involved in the stuttering self-help movement for over 30 years. He helped form the Australian Speak Easy Association (ASEA) in 1981 and is the immediate past President of that association as well as a recent Director of the Australian Stuttering Foundation with Prof. Ashley Craig. John was instrumental in forming the ASEA speech technique booster programs and is highly experienced in the use of the prolonged speech method as well as the McGuire Program. John gave a presentation on the prolonged speech method at the 1^st World Congress for People Who Stutter in Kyoto, Japan in 1986. He also attended the 2^nd, 3^rd, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th World Congresses and is well known in the international self help movement.

Thomas Krall is a teacher of mathematics, sports and music at a comprehensive school. He is currently on a sabbatical. Chair of a stuttering self-help group in Düsseldorf, Germany, 1989-1991. Chair of the German stuttering association, 1992-1993. Member of ISA management committee,1995-1998. Chair of ISA board of directors, 1998-2001.

Masuhiko is a member of the Japan Stuttering Project, Vice Chair-person of the Osaka Stuttering Project, Leader of a volunteer group for mentally challenged children and President of a company in Osaka. He writes, "I started stuttering before entering elementary school. For more than 30 years, I avoided situations that involved speaking. I also denied not only stuttering but also myself. However, my attitude towards stuttering has changed since I joined the JSP. Now I do not find the need to hide my stuttering. I feel free to challenge anything that I want. Stuttering no longer interferes with my life. Through my experience of getting involved with the activities of the JSP I discovered meaningfulness in my life and learned ways to live positively even with stuttering."

Keith is a retired computer professional. He has stuttered since he was 3 years old. Although his wife died in 2001, he regularly visits his married daughter in Illinios USA, and his married son and two grandsons in England. Through out his working life he was involved in helping others to accept change. In February 2006, he stepped out of his comfort zones and his own village to seek more fluency. Since then, as a member and secretary of the BSA Board of Trustees, and a member of the ISA Outreach program he has looked for ways to raise stuttering awareness and to help People Who Stutter. As a member of the ISA Board Keith will look for innovative ways in the three T's (Training, Therapy and Technology) to help Children and Adults Who Stutter in all the countries of the World where there is little or no help.

Suzana is a person who stutters and also a speech pathologist working in Zagreb, Croatia. She is currently the President of the Croatian Association for People Who Stutter (Hinko Freund) and was recently the Chair of the organising committee for the 8th World Congress for People Who Stutter held in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Dr. Moussa Dao is a pharmacist in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. He lives in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. He has stuttered since childhood. Four of the eight children born to his mother stutter. Conscious of the problems encountered by the people who stutter in Africa and conscious of the absence of centers for treatment, he decided, to use the Internet, to research stuttering around the world. In November 2002, he connected with the International Stuttering Association (ISA), and is designated as a "special friend" of the ISA since January 2002. He is very actively involved in the cause of the people who stutter in his country and plans to extend the self help association movement, first in West Africa and then in all Africa. In February 2002 he created Action Against Stuttering (abbreviated in French A.C.B.) the first association of people who stutter in his country and West Africa, and third association throughout all of Africa. He is the president of this association. In addition to stuttering, Dr. Dao walks with the assistance of one crutch due to a deformity of his right foot.

Mark Irwin is a dentist in private practice in Adelaide, Australia. He is a past president of the Australian Speak Easy Association (1995 -1997) and has been a board member of the ISA since 1998. He is the immediate past Chair of the ISA after holding the position for 6 years. He was instrumental putting together the ISA Stuttering Information CD and assisting in the organisation of the 1st African Stuttering Conference in 2005 and has a special interest in the "definition of stuttering".

Judith Eckardt, CCC/SLP, is a Board Recognized Fluency Specialist She received her training at the University of Wisconsin, worked in the IL public schools for many years, and maintains a private practice in Tucson, AZ. Since 1999, she has been a clinical supervisor at Eastern Washington University for the Successful Stuttering Management Program (SSMP). Judith is a stutterer and she founded NSA Metro North in 1996 in IL. In June 2000, she was Chair of the Annual Convention of the National Stuttering Association in Chicago. She has recently retired as the Secretary of the ISA. She has presented both nationally and internationally. To improve her own communication skills, she is a member of Toastmasters International in Tucson and is working on her ATM (advanced certification).

Anita Scharis Blom has stuttered since she was 9. She is born and raised in the Netherlands, but now married and living in Sweden, works as a substitute teacher and IT support at a school for adults as well as a secretary for their private company. Beside her 12 year old daughter, her saxophone playing in a local band and her private website on stuttering, she is a board member at the local chapter, chair person for the national stuttering association, vice chair of the European League of Stuttering Associations and a member of the advisory board of the International Stuttering Association. She has been a project manager for different local and national stuttering information projects and is an appreciated local, national and international key note speaker. Her aim is to put stuttering on the political agenda, to raise awareness among all people surrounding us who stutter and to give stuttering a face, full of hope for the future

Mel Hoffman: Retired. Certified Public Accountant. Formerly director of taxes at Ampex Corporation. Member of the board of directors of the National Stuttering Association from 1983-1994, serving some of these years as either secretary or treasurer. He attends and occasionally facilitates the San Jose chapter of the NSA. In 1996 he was part of the first group of four that was elected to the NSA's National Stuttering Hall of Fame. He is a member of the International Stuttering Association, serving on the management committee and the board of directors. He was ISA Treasurer for six years and currently is an advisory member of the ISA. He is also a member of Speak Easy International Foundation, Inc. (Paramus, NJ). His therapy background dates back to a nine month program under Dr. Charles Van Riper in 1957-58.

Stefan is from Cologne, Germany. Currently he is living in Beijing, China, where he works for a German car manufacturer. He joined the Stuttering Self-Help Movement in 1991 in Cologne and found with it the help, which speech therapy in the years before could not give him. As he was always interested in foreign countries and languages, he became involved with the ISA in 1998, when he attended the World Congress for People Who Stutter in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since then he has worked on the ISA Board, mainly dealing with "Outreach" to countries where the public is still not aware of the stuttering problem and of the ISA. Targeted regions are especially East Asia and Latin America

Hermann Christmann has implemented projects on the prevention of stuttering, stuttering and the labor market, and treatment of stuttering in children, as well as smaller projects, such as interviews of adults who stutter about their life experience, and translation of books on stuttering and treatment of stuttering from Swedish into Danish. (Co-)author of books and several articles on stuttering. Has given university lectures on stuttering, and congress papers and speeches on stuttering. Chair of the Association for Stutterers in Denmark. Is co-founder and past chair of the Stuttering Information Center of Denmark and advisory member of the ISA.

Shinji is from Osaka, Japan where he is the Executive Director, of the Japan Stuttering Project. He established the first self-help group of persons who stutter in Japan in 1965. In addition to his duties as Executive Director of the Japan Stuttering Project he does private practice and teaches speech therapy at several universities and vocational schools. In 1986 he served as the Chairperson of the first International Conference on Stuttering in Kyoto. Later he was involved with the founding of the ISA as a member of the Board of Directors. He has also been organizing summer camps for children who stutter and their parents for 17 years. He has published more than 10 books on stuttering.

Marlene Green currently works as a Speech-Language Pathologist for the York Region Preschool Speech and Language Program, Ontario, Canada as well as in private practice. She attended the Workshop for Specialists in Stuttering Therapy in 1992, and has continued to pursue her passion in this field. She has always had an active interest in self-help for people who stutter, and was involved in organizing the 4th World Congress for People Who Stutter in South Africa in 1998, when she still lived in South Africa. She sat on the board of directors of the International Stuttering Association from 1998-2001 and is currently on the advisory board. She is also a board member of the Speech Foundation of Ontario.

Judith is a professor in the department of Speech, Hearing and Rehabilitation Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is an ASHA fellow and holds Specialty Certification in stuttering. Judith created and maintains the Stuttering Home Page, a guide and resources for professionals, adults and children about the treatment of stuttering, cluttering, and other communication disorders. She has been invited to give presentations about resources for the treatment of communications disorders North America, Europe and China. Along with Michael Sugarman, Judy chairs the annual online stuttering conference, ISAD Conference. ISAD is held on a yearly basis, for the three weeks before International Stuttering Awareness Day, every year. International Stuttering Awareness Day is October 22. She has been the organiser of this conference since 1998. This conference is the most widely available regular research on stuttering. She has published many articles focused on speech-language pathology for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Annie is a person who stutters and is a past Executive Director and spokesperson for the National Stuttering Association of USA. She is currently the Executive Director of the Foundation for Community and Family Health in Corona, California. Annie is also a former Board Member of the ISA. She now returns to the ISA Advisory Board with a wealth of experience in the administration of not-for-profit organisations.

Edwin J Farr MBE is a Chartered Environmental Civil Engineer, born in Manchester, UK, and graduated from Birmingham University. Running parallel with his professional career, his work in stuttering self help and advocacy started in the early 1980's. He has been a member the British Stammering Association for 30 years and Board member for 15 years. He co-founded the European League of Stuttering Associations (ELSA) in 1990 after three years of preparation working with the national stuttering associations of Europe. Since 1990 Edwin has helped organise, with funding from various European bodies, 17 stuttering awareness meetings, conferences and youth meetings and participated in many more. In 2002 Edwin was awarded "Member of the British Empire" (MBE) in the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours, for his services to the Stuttering Community

Dritan Kici (Albania)

Dritan is a journalist however for the last two years he has worked full time on stuttering related matters. He is a Speech and Language Councillor. He recently established the Easy Word Project, which is the first initiative of this kind in Albania aimed at providing a support group for people who stutter. "There are so many children and adults needing help in Albania and it my duty as a recovered stutterer myself to give to them what I have learned".

Arne Hope (Norway)

Arne is from Stavanger, Norway, educated in organisation theory and public administration He is married and has three children and two grandchildren. Formerly, he worked as the head of the administration in a small Norwegian municipality. Currently he is a senior advisory officer for the Rogaland County Council, working a mong other things on health-related issues, coordinating the regional work for the public health, and writing papers for the council. He is a member of the Norwegian Stuttering Association (NIFS) since1998, and has been the chair since 2004.

David Shapiro (USA)

David A. Shapiro, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Fellow of ASHA, a Board Recognized Fluency Specialist, and Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA. In his fourth decade of providing clinical services for people who stutter and their families, Dr. Shapiro is a regular presenter at state, national, and international conferences and has conducted workshops throughout the United States and abroad. His book, Stuttering Intervention: A Collaborative Journey to Fluency Freedom (PRO-ED), is finding a wide international audience. Dr. Shapiro is the 2006 recipient of the International Fluency Association's Award of Distinction for Outstanding Clinician. He is a person who stutters, has two teenage children with his wife, Kay, and lives in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Ken St Louis (USA)

Ken St. Louis is a Professor of speech-language pathology at West Virginia University, in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. He grew up with a stutter, but has mostly recovered. He teaches courses in fluency disorders, supervises individual speech therapy with people who stutter or clutter in the university speech clinic, leads a chapter of the National Stuttering Association, and supervises a weekly stuttering therapy group for adults. St. Louis is a member of ASHA, SID-4, ISA, IFA, NSA, and other professional organizations related to fluency disorders, including a new self-help organization for people who stutter in Turkey. St. Louis has coordinated an initiative to develop an instrument to measure public attitudes toward stuttering internationally. This research has resulted in collaborations with colleagues in numerous countries. Other areas of interest and research are cluttering and stories of stutterers. He has published and presented widely on numerous aspects of fluency disorders for more than 30 years. He authored "Living With Stuttering: Stories, Basics, Resources, and Hope" and co-authored a DVD from The Stuttering Foundation entitled, "Cluttering."

Anne-Marie Simon (France)

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Peter Howell (UK)

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