Diane Kendall

Diane L. Kendall was inducted into the College of Applied Human Sciences Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025. She was previously inducted into the College of Education and Human Services Hall of Fame in 2017.

A native of West Virginia, Kendall earned a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from West Virginia University in 1986, a master’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from California State University, Fullerton in 1989, and a doctorate in communication sciences and disorders from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. She later earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Washington in 2020.

Kendall began her academic career at the University of Florida before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 2008. She served as professor and chair of Speech and Hearing Sciences and was also a research scientist at the VA Medical Center Puget Sound in Seattle. She became Professor Emerita in 2022. Her clinical and research expertise has centered on adult language disorders, particularly aphasia rehabilitation. She developed Phonomotor Treatment (PMT) for anomia in aphasia and co-developed the Standardized Assessment of Phonology in Aphasia (SAPA).

Her work has been recognized internationally. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award in 2013 at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and was named a 2006 Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her honors also include the Clinical Achievement Award from the Washington State Speech and Hearing Association (2011) and the Outstanding Clinical Achievement Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2012).

Across her career, Kendall authored more than 50 scholarly publications and secured more than $1.7 million in research funding. She also advanced efforts to strengthen rehabilitation sciences in low- and middle-income countries and studied health disparities and systems of oppression within the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders.