REWIND: Keys to Recovery after TBI: A Story of Friendship, Resilience, and Self-Advocacy with Laura Morgan and Anna Zolkowski

Keys for SLPs

***Originally aired: 5/9/2022***

Guests: Laura Morgan, MS, CCC-SLP, CBIS and Anna Zolkowski, MA, CCC-SLP, CBIS

Earn 0.1 ASHA CEU for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Keys-to-Recovery-after-TBI-A-Story-of-Friendship-Resilience-

This conversational format explores one TBI survivor and her close friend’s shared experience and clinical observations from “both sides of the Speech-Language Pathology table.” Laura Morgan and Anna Zolkowski met in their clinical fellowship year. Only four months later, Laura suffered a serious TBI. While no longer coworkers, their friendship blossomed while navigating recovery from brain injury. In this podcast, Laura and Anna discuss how they continue to support one another and how this experience has influenced their clinical approaches.

About the Guests:

In 2012, after earning Laura Morgan's master’s degree in Speech-language Pathology from the University of Tennessee, Laura started her clinical fellowship in Frederick, Maryland. Halfway through the fellowship, Laura was a buckled passenger in a serious motor vehicle accident. She sustained a moderate-severe brain injury in the accident, but as a result of the long rehab process, she gained a unique perspective on the head injury in the field of Speech Pathology. Laura has shared her clinical reflections from being both a provider and a recipient of this discipline in articles and dozens of multimedia presentations. Laura restarted and completed her clinical fellowship at Head Injury Rehabilitation and Referral Services in Rockville, MD while earning a brain injury specialist certification. Laura loves working with individuals and leading groups at HIRRS, desiring to inspire and assist others in discovering hope after brain injury.

Anna Zolkowski is a speech-language pathologist and certified brain injury specialist at Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital in Rockville, MD. She is also a co-facilitator of the Brain Injury Support Group of Rockville. Anna has joined Laura in various past presentations and was her co-author on a 2015 article published in the ASHA Leader. Anna completed an undergraduate degree in psychology from Haverford College in 2007 and a Master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from the University of Maryland in 2012. Anna’s experience as a friend during Laura’s recovery has led to a passion for person-centered care and patient autonomy.