Professor Susan Benson received the Don Davis Award Oct. 25 in Oklahoma City. The award, bestowed by the Oklahoma City Mayor's Committee on Disability Concerns, recognizes extraordinary service that has advanced opportunities for people with disabilities and is considered the highest honor given by the committee.

Professor Benson, the Nancy Carolyn Gullatt Professor of Speech Pathology, has been a professor at OU since 1997. Her research interests include elicitation procedures for collecting oral narrative samples from young children; relation of narrative ability to literacy development; and early intervention service delivery models for children with communication delays. Gilmore worked as a speech pathologist for the Edmond Public Schools for 17 years before eaming her doctorate in speech-language pathology trom OU in 1997.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the College of Allied Health Faculty Development Award and Edmond Excellence in Teaching Award. Outside of the classroom, Benson has competed in the International Paralympics in Athens, Greece. Gilmore, who has been in a wheelchair since she was hit by a car at the age of 17, led the U.S. team to the 2004 games. It was Gilmore's second trip to the international event. " Every day, in fulfilling her responsibilities in the classroom, in directing activities of her beloved preschool, in recruiting students and working with parents of language-impaired children, Susan Benson exemplifies all that is achievable with or without a disability through tenacity, dedication and commitment," said Carole Sullivan, dean of the OU College of Allied Health, in a statement. "She exemplifies that spirit of Oklahoma that makes all of us proud and occasionally humbled." (OU Pulic Affairs, 11-2005)