Patty (Ogrodnick) Walton '85 with colleagues

Patty (Ogrodnick) Walton, SLP, MA ‘85 received her B.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1983, and her M.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1985. Fellow students and faculty will tell you that during her studies there, Patty brought good cheer to the department. She was skillful at organizing student involvement and various student/faculty social events that increased camaraderie. After graduation, Patty has specialized exclusively in the diagnosis and treatment of stuttering in children and adults in her career. Patty was the Director of the Stuttering Program at the Center for Hearing, Speech, & Language in Denver from 1985-1987. Upon leaving the Center, Patty worked in a private practice setting until 1992. At that time Patty and long-time colleague Mary Wallace opened the Center for Stuttering Therapy in Denver and Boulder. Patty currently works out of the Denver office providing specialized therapy services for both children and adults. You can visit their website at: http://www.coloradostutteringtherapy.com/index.htm

Patty & Mary's book Fun with Fluency

Patty is co-author with Mary Wallace, ’83, of the preschool treatment book Fun With Fluency. A new book by Patty on school age therapy (soon to be titled) will be published in 2009. It will be available from Pro-Ed, an international publisher (http://www.proedinc.com/Customer/default.aspx). She has also contributed several articles on stuttering to national and international journals. She has presented extensively both on a state and national level in the area of stuttering disorders and provides consultation services and training workshops for parents, speech pathologists and educators, along with intensive therapy for children across the United States. Patty also teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on fluency disorders at Metropolitan State College and a graduate class in stuttering at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. She serves on the advisory board for Friends: The Association of Young People Who Stutter, an organization she's been closely involved with since it's inception in 1997. It is a nationally based support group for children and families of children who stutter. To learn more about this beneficial organization and support program visit: http://www.friendswhostutter.org/ In her own words, Patty writes about her work, life and memories of her time at SLHS (Then CDSS, Communication Disorders and Speech Science) I graduated in 1985 with a Master of Arts degree in speech pathology. My most passionate interest in grad school was stuttering. I was the only person in my class who wanted to work with stuttering so when my classmates got their ASHA required 25 hours I took all the stuttering clients. At that time, I was most interested in adults who stuttered.

Patty (left) with colleagues

I have worked exclusively with stuttering since graduating from grad school. I am very lucky to be able to work with children and who stutter every day and be a part of helping them speak more freely. I am in private practice at the Center for Stuttering Therapy in Denver. I have just finished a five year project, writing a school age therapy book which is in the final stages of publication now. It is due late in 2009, published by Pro-Ed. I can’t say I have any specific future goals, as I my plate is full teaching and doing therapy. I teach the graduate class in Fluency Disorders at University of Northern Colorado in Greeley , both on campus and online, and the undergraduate class at Metropolitan State College in Denver. I think the one thing I would like to do in the future is become more involved in "Friends, the Association of Young People who Stutter". I am on the advisory board but have not been able to contribute as much as I would like. Now that the book is done I plan on increasing those volunteer hours! I think my fondest memory from grad school is the CDSS float in the homecoming parade! We got all the materials donated, even a flatbed. And the those big lips and tongue flapping in the breeze was so memorable! I think the whole experience brought our class together in a special way. I must say we are all still very close friends and see each other frequently. Our class did a lot of practical jokes on each other the professors, Lori Ramig and the Michael Jackson glove, Amy Weiss and the clipboard and blazer day….there are too many to mention. My hobbies now are traveling and skiing with my family. We love to spend weekends in Steamboat and try new areas when we can. Both my girls figure skate so we spend a lot of time at the rink and traveling to competitions. My husband Wayne is a firefighter in New York before we were married and he now works in management at Safeway. My daughter Jenna is a junior at University of Denver and is planning on becoming a pediatric neurologist. She is very interested in autism and is currently doing research on the disorder in school. She just returned from a semester abroad in Spain. She continues her passion for figure skating by skating on University of Denver skating team. My younger daughter Meghan is a junior in high school and is considering interior design or teaching as a career. She wants to attend C.U. or D.U. for college. She skates for the Rocky Mountain Figure Skating Club at the Novice level. Both girls are passionate snowboarders and volunteer with the Special Olympics hockey team teaching disabled children who to ice skate.