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Dr. Thomas Campbell, Longtime Callier Center Director, Set To Retire
Center Became One of Nation's Best in Programs, Care During His Tenure

Dr. Thomas Campbell

Dr. Thomas Campbell will retire as executive director of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders at the end of August, leaving behind a 14-year success story of improved patient care, nationally ranked student education and a vigorous research enterprise.

“Tom brought the comprehensive academic health center concept to the everyday functioning of the Callier Center, boosting us to be among the best in the country in education, research and clinical care, and substantially raising our profile in the community,” said Dr. Steven Small, dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) and Aage and Margareta Møller Distinguished Professor in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Campbell, who is the Ludwig A. Michael, MD Executive Director of the Callier Center and the Sara T. Martineau Endowed Professor, said the clinical and education aspects of the center are woven together in everything that happens at the center.

Under Campbell’s leadership, the BBS graduate programs at Callier are now ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the top 10 of all such graduate programs nationwide: Audiology is ranked No. 2, and speech-language pathology is ranked No. 10.

Other accomplishments under Campbell’s leadership include the establishment of Callier’s postdoctoral program, the creation of both the Callier Prize in Communication Disorders and the Ruth and Ken Altshuler Callier Care Award, and the expansion of the Board of Trustees for the Foundation for the Callier Center. The board advises the executive director and helps with fundraising activities, including the annual Callier Cares Luncheon.

“When Tom came to Dallas, he brought an intellectualism and an aspiration of even greater excellence. He had a sense of what programs would be good to grow and what programs wouldn’t be as good to support. Tom is unique in that he is both an extraordinary scientist and an extraordinary administrator. He has been perfect for the Callier Center.”

Dr. Steven Small, dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Fundraising was essential to Campbell’s proposal to build a new Callier building on the UT Dallas Richardson campus. The original Callier Center has been in the Southwestern Medical District in Dallas since the early 1960s. While education, clinical care and research continued on the Dallas campus, Campbell worked to raise funds to expand a sister state-of-the-art facility in Richardson to complement and grow the work taking place in Dallas. The new Richardson building was completed in 2016.

“Getting permission, raising the money, designing and opening up the Callier Richardson addition was one of the highlights of what I did here,” he said. “It is something that never would have been possible before that time, and it’s something that would not be possible now. It was the right time.”

Campbell was named executive director of the Callier Center in 2006 after serving as director of audiology and communication disorders at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

While Small was not yet at UT Dallas, he knew Campbell when they both were at the University of Pittsburgh.

“When Tom came to Dallas, he brought an intellectualism and an aspiration of even greater excellence. He had a sense of what programs would be good to grow and what programs wouldn’t be as good to support,” Small said. “Tom is unique in that he is both an extraordinary scientist and an extraordinary administrator. He has been perfect for the Callier Center.”

Infographic with text: Dr. Thomas Campbell is retiring after 14 years. HEre is a look at how Callier has transformed while he was executive director. 20 million dollars has been raised by Callier to support events, families and students. 1,846 graduate students have been taught at Callier. The Callier Center budget has doubled from 3.5 million dollars to 7 million dollars.

Research remained a focus for Campbell as he led the center. He has participated in or led many large-scale research projects, including longitudinal studies funded by the National Institutes of Health to assess the developmental outcomes for children recovering from severe traumatic brain injuries and children with and without histories of middle-ear effusion.

Campbell also has conducted studies on the physiological development of speech in typical and atypical speakers. His research focused on the identification of physiological, environmental and genetic variables to aid in the early screening of speech and language disorders in children.

Small said Campbell laid a solid foundation for future growth at the center and will be missed as an administrator.

“Tom understood the integration, interaction and importance of every aspect of the Callier Center,” he said. “He’s the consummate academic health leader.”

Angela Shoup BS’89, MS’92, PhD’94, who heads the Division of Communicative and Vestibular Disorders at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been selected as the new executive director of the Callier Center. She will begin her duties on Sept. 1.

Campbell said he likely will continue to participate in research projects even after he retires, but he is looking forward to spending time doing outdoor activities with his wife, Dr. Christine Dollaghan, a BBS professor at UT Dallas since 2006, who also is retiring. She has played a leading role in shaping evidence-based practice in communication disorders as immediate past chair of the Science Advisory Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and as past chair of the organization’s Advisory Committee on Evidence-Based Practice.

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].