Samantha Elandary
MA, CCC-SLP
Samantha Elandary
MA, CCC-SLP
Samantha Elandary, MA, CCC-SLP, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Parkinson Voice Project. She holds a BA in communication disorders and English and an MA in speech-language pathology from the University of North Texas. Since 1999, Samantha has worked exclusively with individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s and related movement disorders. She has devoted her life to making quality speech therapy accessible to this patient population.
Early in her career, Elandary recognized that individuals with Parkinson’s responded remarkably well to speech therapy and vocal exercise, but they struggled to maintain their improvements. Patients who had the capability to improve were losing their voices, ending up with feeding tubes, and dying of aspiration pneumonia. The medical community attributed this to the progressive, degenerative nature of the disease. However, Elandary came to discover that this was not the biggest problem. Since dopamine impacts motivation and drive—and people with Parkinson’s have lost 80% of their dopamine-producing cells—the desire to continue with speech therapy that could help is diminished.
With compassion and determination, Elandary set out to develop a comprehensive speech therapy program that would not only strengthen the speech and swallowing mechanisms, but also provide the support and encouragement this patient population needed to stay the course. She created The LOUD Crowd®, a maintenance program consisting of speech and singing groups that also served as a support system for patients and their families.
People with Parkinson’s and related movement disorders were being treated in Elandary’s home. They would complete individual speech therapy and then attend speech and singing groups. The LOUD Crowd® met at her home during those early years. In 2005, Elandary founded the Texas Voice Project for Parkinson Disease, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the voices of those with Parkinson’s. In 2011, the name of the organization changed to Parkinson Voice Project when the Board of Directors recognized the program could be replicated to help people with Parkinson’s beyond Texas.
Many ask what motivated Samantha to start Parkinson Voice Project. While she does not have a family history of Parkinson’s, she was born with a cleft palate and struggled with her speech from childhood through her early professional years. She understands how vulnerable someone with a communication disorder feels and how others often judge a person’s intelligence and competence based on their ability to speak. She considers it an honor and a privilege to help people with Parkinson’s regain and retain one of God’s most precious gifts—their voice. Unlimited
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