Claire Penn (1951–2018) was a South African speech and language pathologist, and held the endowed chair of Speech Pathology and

Audiology Audiology (from Latin , "to hear"; and from Greek , '' -logia'') is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing vario ...

at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, and was a former senior research specialist at the

Human Sciences Research Council The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa is Africa's largest dedicated social science and humanities research agency and policy think tank. It primarily conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific projects for publi ...

. She received the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) in 2007, South Africa's highest honor, for her work in

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

, sign language, child language,

aphasia Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in t ...

, and head injury.

Career

Penn was born in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and moved with her family to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

at age 12. She attended the

(Wits), where she completed her bachelor's degree (''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'') in Speech and Hearing in 1972. She worked at Wits as clinical tutor from 1973 to 1976 before moving to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

as a British council scholar. She returned to Wits to earn a PhD in 1983. She was a visiting scholar to

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third univer ...

in Sydney, Australia, and

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Res ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. In 2008 Penn was named Shoprite Checkers / SABC 2 South Africa Woman of the Year for Science and Technology. In 2012, her visit and lecture on "Health Communication across Cultures: Some Perspectives from South Africa" was funded by Duke University.

Personal life

She had two children, and her hobbies included mountain climbing and hiking.

Awards and honours

She was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver in 2007 for "Excellent contribution to the field of speech and language pathology, especially in the area of linguistics, sign language, child language, aphasia and head injury and producing ground-breaking research in understanding the complexities of human communication."

References

External links

Staff profile
University of the Witwatersrand * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Claire 1951 births 2018 deaths Speech and language pathologists South African women scientists University of the Witwatersrand alumni University of the Witwatersrand academics 20th-century women scientists 21st-century women scientists