Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Samantha Elandary 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, Elandary has worked exclusively with individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s and related neurological disorders. She has devoted her life to making quality speech therapy accessible to this patient population.
Early in her career, Elandary recognized individuals with Parkinson’s responded remarkably well to speech therapy and vocal exercise, but they struggled to retaintheir improvements. Patients who had the capability to improve were losing their voices, ending up on feeding tubes, and dying of aspiration pneumonia. Although the medical community attributed this to the progressive, degenerative nature of the disease, Elandary recognized this was not the biggest problem.
People with Parkinson’s were losing their speech and swallowing abilities because they would complete formal speech therapy and then stop their speech exercises; but with a disease like Parkinson’s, speech exercise can never stop. People with Parkinson’s need a lifetime of speech therapy combined with daily home practice.
While daily exercise can be a struggle for most people, it is especially challenging for those with Parkinson’s. Dopamine impacts motivation and drive. Without enough dopamine, the desire to continue with therapy and daily exercise that could retain speech and swallowing is diminished.
With compassion and determination, Elandary set out to develop a comprehensive speech therapy program that would improve speech and swallowing AND provide the motivation the Parkinson’s population needed to “stay the course.”
After one-on-one speech therapy, Elandary transitioned her patients to a maintenance program consisting of weekly speech therapy and singing groups. She built camaraderie among her group members and their families. She provided clinical expertise with encouragement in a fun and loving environment. By combining one-on-one speech therapy with ongoing group support, her patients were maintaining their speech and swallowing abilities – even as their Parkinson’s progressed.
Elandary originally treated people with Parkinson’s and related neurological disorders in her home. In 2005, Elandary founded Texas Voice Project for Parkinson Disease, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with Parkinson’s regain and retain
their speech and swallowing. The SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program was developed in 2010. The name of the organization changed to Parkinson Voice Project in 2011 when
its Board of Directors recognized their program could be replicated to help people with Parkinson’s beyond Texas. In 2021, Parkinson Voice Project received a major gift that endowed its 10,000sqft building.
Many ask what motivated Elandary 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 until she was a young professional. She understands how vulnerable someone who has a communication disorder feels. She knows other people sometimes judge a person’s intelligence and competence based on the ability to communicate. She considers it an honor and a privilege to help people with Parkinson’s and related neurological disorders preserve one of God’s most precious gifts.
Over the next few years, Elandary’s primary goal is to build up Parkinson Voice Project’s endowment through its Bartholomew Circle. She wants the organization to endure well beyond her tenure. This is critical as there is no other nonprofit organization in the world solely dedicated to helping people with Parkinson’s regain and retain their speech and swallowing.
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