By: Max J. Pell, MS, CCC-SLP, Vice President of Advocacy
The Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) is charting new territory in the world of advocacy. As many are aware, our longtime Director of Governmental Affairs Larry Higdon retired in 2025, and our longtime Legal and Legislative Counsel Mark Hanna passed away last May. I first met Larry and Mark when I was still a student getting involved with TSHA, and their leadership, mentorship, encouragement, and friendship have meant the world to me. That being said, TSHA is in a difficult but unique position—difficult because we are without the pillars of stability who have guided us through legislative processes for years and unique because we have the opportunity to form something new and different that will hopefully guide us for years to come.
The TSHA Advocacy Vice Presidency has four committees functioning within it—two are likely familiar to those who have followed advocacy in the past and two are brand new, developing, and getting off the ground as you read this article.
The TSHA Political Action Committee (PAC) is still going strong. The TSHA PAC’s primary responsibility is to raise funds to donate to campaigns of legislators who have supported TSHA in the past or whom we feel are reliable allies and committed to supporting our interests in the future. The PAC is also charged with encouraging speech-language pathologists and audiologists to understand the institutions and procedures of government and the public issues acted upon by governmental officials who affect the professions and those we serve. To donate to TSHA PAC, please visit the following link at TSHA Store Products.
The TSHA Advocacy Communications Committee has done incredible work over the past year with significant engagement on social media through the development of content related to TSHA’s advocacy efforts. Moving forward, the Advocacy Communications Committee will continue to develop content to share with our membership regarding key issues of importance to the professions as well as developing material to help educate legislators, insurances, or government agencies about key issues of importance to SLPs and audiologists.
Our two new committees are the Legislative Advocacy Network and the Legislative Advocacy Training Committees. The Legislative Advocacy Network is charged with coordinating Capitol Visit Day, creating relationships with legislators, creating draft position statements for Executive Board feedback, and identifying subject matter experts who are able to testify on behalf of TSHA at the state legislature. The Legislative Advocacy Training Committee is charged with training TSHA members on the legislative process and the ins and outs of advocacy at the national, state, and workplace levels. The idea of the Training Committee is to help every TSHA member feel empowered to advocate at any level on behalf of the professions.
We are excited to see our new systems and committees come to fruition and to see our existing committees continue to thrive in 2026. My ask of you is this: Contact your legislator. Introduce yourself, and let them know that you are a constituent and a professional who is willing to be a resource for anything related to speech-language pathology or audiology. Contact them now because we are in campaign season and there’s no better time to establish connections and build relationships than when legislators need us more than we need them. If we wait until the legislative session begins, they will be surrounded by individuals with an agenda. The time to build connections is now.
To find your legislators, please visit Who Represents Me?, type in your address, and find your state legislators as the second and third results. Remember that you are looking for “Texas House District #” and “Texas Senate District #.”