• ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY, AUGMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION
• AUTISM AND EARLY INTERVENTION
• CASE MANAGEMENT AND LIFE CARE PLANNING
• CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDERS
• COMMUNICATIVE DISORDERS
• EDUCATION, MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
• EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES
• HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION
• HEALTH OUTCOMES AND ECONOMICS
• LARYNGECTOMY, MEDICAL VOICE ISSUES, SPASMODIC DYSPHONIA,
• ORAL AND PHARYNGEAL DYSPHAGIA
• PHARMACOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION DISORDERS
• VOICE SCIENCE

Carolyn Wiles Higdon is Full Professor in Communicative Sciences and Disorders Dr. Higdon is an adjunct clinical professor to the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders/Otolaryngology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and has served on Faculty Senate. Dr. Higdon received her doctorate fro the University of Georgia in 1988. She is the CEO of Wiles Higdon & Associates LLC, an international private practice dealing with medical and educational speech language pathology, case management and life care planning, and consulting to school systems, medical practices and law practices. Dr. Higdon is qualified as an expert witness in her specialty areas and has testified in federal and state court cases. She is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, Vice President of Finances on the American Speech Languag Hearing Association's Board of Directors, on the accreditation team for site visits, and is a member of ASHA and RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America). Dr. Higdon is published in the areas of assistive technology/augmentative and alternative communication-case management, life care planning, and voice science. Her research interests are evidence based practice and outcome measures, pharmacological interventions for communication disorders, and future trends in the medical community. Dr. Higdon has testifie in front of the American Medical Association, has taken rehabilitation delegations to Russia, China, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Kenya, eastern Europe, an Bosnia, and has consulted to the Department of Labor, Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Higdon teaches undergraduate, graduate courses, and online courses in Communication Sciences and Disorders, as well as in assistive technology, and future trends of science and medicine. Dr. Higdon's honors include Fellow of ASHA, Phi Kappa Phi, and Honors of MSHA as well as MSHA Clinician of the Year. Dr. Higdon is the current chair of the IPP IPE Committee of the Council of Academic Programs in CSD and is instrumental in developing the University of Mississippi IPP IPE project. Dr. Higdon has served on American Speech Language Hearing Association's committees/boards, including the Financial Planning Board, the Government Relations and Public Policy Board, the Special Interest Divisions Board of Division Coordinators and the Council of Academic Accreditation, as well as serving as a CAA and JACHO site visitor, consultant to the ASHA Health Care Economics Committee, and a chapter advisor to the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. Dr. Higdon is a past ASH Board of Directors Vice President of Finance, and current editor of the ASHA Special Interest Group 17 Perspectives Journal.

Dr. Higdon is a former university department chair, past state association president, past chair of the Georgia Board of Examiners, member of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools and International Commission on Healthcare Professions, a sitting speech-language pathologist for the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America's Professional Standards Committee, and a past member of the Joint Committee of ASHA and the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Higdon's holds degrees from Kent State University and the University of Georgia.