Help support our doctoral students!

Ray Kent influenced thousands of undergraduates, graduate students and doctoral candidates during his 36-year tenure in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Now, the department would like to extend Kent’s influence to a new generation of students.

Kent, who still lives in Madison, retired and was granted emeritus status in 2006. A number of Kent’s former doctoral students, including current department chair Gary Weismer, all agreed to waive their royalties from the textbook “Motor Speech Disorders” (edited by Weismer) and use the money to create the Ray Kent Doctoral Scholarship Fund in honor of this world-renowned scholar and beloved teacher. The book’s publisher, Plural Publishing of San Diego, agreed to match the yearly royalties from sales of the text and contribute the combined sum to the scholarship fund.

Since publication of the text in 2006, the book has sold well and initiated the funding base required to award a yearly scholarship. Once the funding base is sufficient, the Kent fund will be used to award one scholarship per year to a doctoral student in Communication Sciences and Disorders who is working on research that emulates Kent’s approach, both in areas of study and quality. Kent’s primary research interests during his time at UW-Madison were normal and disordered speech production, with special emphasis on speech development and motor speech disorders in adults.

The fund needs additional donations before scholarships can be awarded. Please consider donating to the Ray Kent Doctoral Scholarship Fund this year. Your gifts, no matter the size, can make a difference for doctoral students working on cutting-edge research in our field. To make a donation, click here. To learn about other gift funds in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, click here.