Global Symposium on Racing Speaker: Dr. Patricia A. Prelock
Patricia Prelock, Ph.D., is Provost and Chief Academic Officer at the University of Arizona. Formerly, she was the Interim President at the University of Vermont for one year, Provost and Senior Vice President for 5 and half years and Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Vermont for 10 years. She was also a department chair in Communication Sciences and Disorders for 7 and half years. She is an Emerita Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders, and former Professor of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Prelock received her Ph.D. in speech-language pathology from the University of Pittsburgh and her bachelors and masters from Kent State University. Dr. Prelock is a recognized expert in the nature and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and has been awarded more than $25 million dollars in university, state and federal funding as a PI or Co-PI to develop innovations in interdisciplinary training supporting children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families, to facilitate training in speech-language pathology, and to support her intervention work in autism. She has over 220 publications and over 600 peer-reviewed and invited presentations/keynotes in the areas of autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities, collaboration, IPE, leadership, and language learning disabilities. In 2019, she was named Associate Editor for the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and in 2023 she was named Associate Editor for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience-Speech and Language Section. Dr. Prelock received the University of Vermont’s Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000, was named an ASHA Fellow in 2000 and a University of Vermont Scholar in 2003. In 2011, she was named the Cecil & Ida Green Honors Professor Visiting Scholar at Texas Christian University and in 2015 Dr. Prelock was named a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Pittsburgh. In 2016, she received the ASHA Honors of the Association and in 2017 she was named a Distinguished Alumna of Cardinal Mooney High School. Dr. Prelock also received the 2018 Jackie M. Gribbons Leadership Award from Vermont Women in Higher Education, 2026 Alpha Phi International Frances E Willard Award and the spirit of Philanthropy Award from the ASHA Foundation in 2026. Dr. Prelock is a Board-Certified Specialist in Child Language and was named a Fellow in the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in speech-language pathology in 2018. She was the 2013 President for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and was President of the ASHFoundation in 2020 and 2021.