• Einer Boberg, Late Executive Director
• Deborah Kully, Executive Director
• Marilyn Langevin, Clinical Director

Dr. Boberg was born in 1935 in a Danish immigrant farming community near Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. He stuttered so severely that he decided to drop out of school after Grade 8 to follow in his father s footsteps on the farm. However, after a year driving a tractor he found this unsatisfying, completed high school and went to college with the intention of making career in music as a violinist. In his late teens he went to the USA to receive his first treatment for his stuttering at a University of Minnesota summer clinic in Minneapolis; then relapsed after a year and attended a second summer. When he relapsed a second time, he decided the only way to beat his problem was to enter the field of speech pathology. He obtained his MA in that field at the University of Iowa in 1963, his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1968, and returned to Canada to head a new program in speech pathology at the University of Alberta in 1971.

He taught at the University until his death in October 1995, researching, editing and writing articles and books, chairing or serving on committees for 11 graduate thesis committees in various fields, and presenting workshops in Canada, the USA, England, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Kuwait. In 1986, with Deborah Kully, he founded the Institute for Stuttering Treatment & Research. One of his most significant contributions to the field of fluency research and therapy was organizing three international conferences on stuttering at Banff in the Canadian Rockies. He served on the executive of the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and received the honours of the Association in 1983. In 1990, he was invited to Kuwait to plan a speech pathology program for the University of Kuwait, a plan that is now being implemented. In 1991 he became the first President of the newly formed International Fluency Association.

At the time of his death, Dr. Boberg was looking forward to retiring from the University and devoting all of his time to the Institute he had helped to found. His work is now being carried forward by Deborah Kully, Marilyn Langevin and the other staff at the Institute.

Deborah Kully, M.Sc., S-LP(C), CCC Sp/Lang - Executive Director

Deborah Kully first became involved in stuttering treatment in 1978, when she was a student speech pathologist in one of Einer Boberg s early experimental clinics. That experience ignited a deep and enduring interest in fluency disorders and a profound desire to learn more about these perplexing and potentially debilitating conditions. After another year working in the summer clinics she became clinical coordinator of the program, further developing the adult intensive and maintenance programs, creating and testing new programs for children and teens and training speech pathology students. Together with Einer Boberg she published the Comprehensive Stuttering Program in 1985 and co-founded the Institute for Stuttering Treatment & Research (ISTAR) in 1986 for which she was Clinical Director until 1996. She has worked with over 1000 people who stutter, published many articles, given workshops on fluency therapy at meetings across Canada and the USA and presented at conferences in Europe. Most of her interests relate to treatment efficacy and centre on early intervention, effective service delivery models, assessing and treating emotional and attitudinal aspects of stuttering, enhancing long term maintenance of fluency and attitudinal gains, use of technology in stuttering treatment (with collaborators, she is currently developing a computerized fluency program) and measures of treatment outcome.

Marilyn Langevin, M.Sc., S-LP(C), Clinical Director

Marilyn Langevin is from northern Alberta and, after a first career as a paralegal in law firms, entered the field of speech pathology at the University of Alberta in 1984. During her practicum with the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research, she discovered the fascination of working with people who stutter. As clinical coordinator since 1988 she has made major contributions to the form and structure of the therapy programs, developed a highly effective clinician training program, conducted research and published papers on fluency, and given workshops and lectures in the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium. Marilyn has worked with over 400 people who stutter and trained more than130 students in the treatment program. Her particular interests are in the psychological impact of stuttering. She is currently developing and testing a classroom-based program to reduce teasing and bullying in the schools.