The College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) announced a new partnership between the Department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) and The RiteCare Childhood Language Center of Long Beach to provide speech, language, and literacy treatment of children with language disorders. A major gift from the California Scottish Rite Foundation will support the SLP Department to train competent speech-language pathologists and extend clinical services year-round to meet the high demand for communication and language services.  

“By joining forces with the Scottish Rite Foundation of California, we can expand our ability to provide free and high-quality services to more children,” says Dr. Monica Lounsbery, Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at CSULB. “This mutually beneficial partnership will advance our efforts to serve the public good, expand enrollment, accelerate degree completion, and increase the volume of licensed speech-language pathologists.” 

“The Scottish Rite Foundation is committed to serving children in our communities with language disorders.  This partnership with the Speech-Language Pathology Department at California State University, Long Beach will educate more speech-language pathologists to help our children in the future,” says Arthur L Salazar Jr, Executive Vice President of the California Scottish Rite Foundation.  “We can’t imagine a better partner.”

With the gift from the California Scottish Rite Foundation, the SLP Department will:  

• Restructure and expand our SLP graduate program to train more clinicians in a shorter amount of time.  
• Offer a year-round clinic that serves more children and adults with communication disorders.
• Provide the infrastructure to offer group therapy to clients and their family members/caregivers.  

“By sharing resources and supporting each other, the SLP Department and California Scottish Rite Foundation aim to serve more individuals who need speech and language services,” says Dr. Pei-Fang Hung, Chair of the Department of Speech-Language Pathology. “Through this partnership, we will address the needs of our local communities, provide evidence-based speech and language intervention to a diverse clientele, and offer students the learning opportunities to develop their clinical skills.”