When recovering stroke patients need to relearn vital skills, specialists with expertise from the University of Oklahoma’s College of Allied Health step in to help save lives. A new scholarship in the college’s speech-language pathology program will offer master’s students a powerful boost in gaining that expertise at a pivotal moment. 

Through a gift to the OU Foundation, Katrina Kirkpatrick is honoring her mother with the JoAnn Buckholts Bullard Legacy SLP Scholarship Fund, which will become the largest endowed scholarship in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Bullard, OU BA ’70, MA ’71, was an educator and clinician whose career spanned public schools, hospital leadership, lecturing in the OU School of Medicine’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology and decades of private practice. 

She became especially known for her expertise working with stroke patients, helping them regain swallowing ability through specialized therapy and close collaboration with physicians.

By easing financial pressure during an intensive, clinical-heavy graduate program, the Bullard scholarship will help recipients focus on becoming highly skilled, compassionate clinicians ready to serve patients and families as speech-language pathologists. 

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