FOR RANDI JACOBY, every day she is at work is a great day. As the director of Jacoby Speech Therapy Associates for Children in Manhattan for more than 40 years, she has helped countless children and their families. “My calling in life has been to lift these children up, not only to remediate speech and language disorders, but to elevate a child’s overall functioning and self-image,” Jacoby (’80) says. “I strive to help parents to not only understand their child’s differences, but to accept them, and to find areas of talent and ability in their children in order to make them feel positive about themselves.”

Jacoby says that the key is to not simply view the patient as an individual with a disability, but rather as a whole person, putting their self esteem and confidence at the forefront. “My goal is to find strengths, whether in a stroke patient or a child with a learning disorder. I ask myself, ‘How can I incorporate areas of interest and ability in that patient in order to facilitate and enhance the therapeutic process?’” Of course, her secret to building lasting relationships with all patients is to form a great therapeutic bond. Many of those strong relationships have lasted decades, as some of her earliest patients now bring their children to her for treatment.

Jacoby’s career started from a desire to help people and make a daily impact—a desire that brought her to Sargent at 17 years old. “I chose BU because unlike other schools, BU had a program exclusively devoted to health and rehabilitation,” she says. “At the time that I studied, my professors were some of the most well-recognized names in my field, writing the evaluation tools that continue to be the gold standard for testing today.” Having the opportunity to study with leaders in the field such as Elisabeth Wiig, Eleanor Semel, and Nicholas Bankson was a great draw for Jacoby. “When I arrived at BU, the classes were small and it allowed me to have great access to my professors,” she says.

In college, Jacoby pursued a leadership role outside of the classroom. As the president of the BU Student Speech and Hearing Association, Jacoby created the first student-led symposium, which drew an audience of more than 300 rehabilitation professionals. It was that first formal speaking engagement that would foreshadow a long career of public speaking through both lectures and podcasts. Jacoby became a regular speaker at the renowned 92Y in New York, as well as at schools and hospitals. She has been frequently quoted in textbooks and periodicals, including the New York Times.

“The hallmark of my career has been to reach a wider audience, in order to both educate and inform,” she says. “When I first began my career, there appeared to be a stigma regarding treatment in children. I hope that I have advanced the narrative in recognizing the value of early identification and remediation.” In recent years, as a member of the Sargent College Clinical Advisory Board, Jacoby provides her clinical knowledge and expertise to advise future therapists.

“BU gave me access to the highest caliber of practitioners in my field,” she says, “My goal was to follow in their footsteps and build my own path with the knowledge and skills that I developed at Sargent. I now have the privilege to do the same for the next generation. That is the greatest reward.”

 

STORY BY TING YU