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Mary Lovey Wood
Mary Lovey Wood (Austin,TX) has devoted more than forty-four years of professional services to the diagnosis and treatment of Language-Based Learning Disabilities and served more than two hundred thousand patients, ranging in age from nine months to seventy years. She is founder, owner, and director of the Austin Speech, Language, and Learning Clinic, the first private practice facility in Speech-Language Pathology in the Southwest and of the first such facilities in the nation. Dr. Wood has been active in her state and national professional organizations, is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and holds the Honors of the Association. After extensive efforts to obtain a licensing statute for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists in Texas, Mary Lovey was elected the first Chair of the first Board of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists, and she holds the first Texas license in Speech-Language Pathology.
Dr. Wood received her Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The University of Texas at Austin, although she also pursued graduate studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Indiana University. While a student at The University of Texas, she was chair of the Union Speakers Committee, on the Editorial Board of the Cactus, an Outstanding Student, Vice-President of the Student Union Board of Directors, an Orange Jacket, a member of Sigma Alpha Eta, the SLP student honorary society, a member of Phi Kappa Phi, a graduate honorary society, recipient of a VRA Grant in Speech-Language Pathology, and a BlueBonnet Belle.
Wood was a Supervisor in the University of Texas Speech and Hearing Clinic, Instructor in The University of Texas Graduate Program of Communication Disorders, Associate Professor at Texas State College, and, has served as Consultant to hospitals, public and private schools in Texas and throughout the United States. She has held Consultantships with Illinois Press, College Hill Press, Psychological Corporation of New York, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. She was a Delegate to the White House Conference on the Handicapped, a Delegate to the National Conference on Undergraduate, Graduate, and Continuing education in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a Delegate to the International Congress on Learning Disabilities in Pittsburgh. She was Distinguished Lecturer at St. Louis University, Consultant and Master Clinician with the Alaska State Department of Health, and has conducted professional seminars in Italy, England, Hong Kong, and China. She has authored two textbooks in her profession- Language Disorders in School-Age Children and Private Practice in Communication Disorders- and has contributed numerous articles and chapters in professional publications.
Mary Lovey served as Chair of the Continuing Education Board of ASHA, held numerous Chairs of ASHA committees, and served on its Legislative Council for twelve years. She was Vice-President and President of the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and designed and helped establish the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation, and, served as Advisor to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation. During the 70’s and 80’s, she established a sliding-scale service for Communication Disorders in Georgetown, Texas, which, at the time, had no such service.
Dr. Wood is currently a member of the Advisory Council of The University of Texas Union, previously served on the UT College of Communication Advisory Council, and is a life member of the Texas Exes.
Dr. Wood is a Managing Partner of Wood Brothers, LLC, a land management and oil and gas enterprise in South and South Central Texas, and a real estate investor in the Austin area.
Dr. Wood is CEO and Managing Partner of Wolf Associates, a horse breeding and racing enterprise in Texas and New Mexico. She has researched equine breeding operations in New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, England, and Ireland. She is a member of the Texas Thoroughbred Association, a Life Member of the American Quarter Horse Association, and a member of the Ruidoso Jockey Club.
The greatest honor she ever received, Wood says, came from a high school boy naming her as the “Person Who Made the Most Dramatic Change in my Life.”