Claire Penn

Claire Penn (1951–2018) was a South African speech and language pathologist, and held the endowed chair of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, and was a former senior research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council. She received the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) in 2007, South Africa's highest honor, for her work in linguistics, sign language, child language, aphasia, and head injury.

Claire Penn
Born1951
Kenya
Died21 July 2018(2018-07-21) (aged 66–67) [1][2]
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand
Scientific career
FieldsSpeech-language pathology
InstitutionsUniversity of the Witwatersrand

Career

Penn was born in Kenya and moved with her family to South Africa at age 12. She attended the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where she completed her bachelor's degree (cum laude) in Speech and Hearing in 1972. She worked at Wits as clinical tutor from 1973 to 1976 before moving to England as a British council scholar. She returned to Wits to earn a PhD in 1983.[3]

She was a visiting scholar to Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and Case Western Reserve University in the United States.[3] In 2008 Penn was named Shoprite Checkers / SABC 2 South Africa Woman of the Year for Science and Technology.[4][5] In 2012, her visit and lecture on "Health Communication across Cultures: Some Perspectives from South Africa" was funded by Duke University.[6]

Personal life

She had two children, and her hobbies included mountain climbing and hiking.[3]

Awards and honours

She was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver in 2007 for "Excellent contribution to the field of speech and language pathology, especially in the area of linguistics, sign language, child language, aphasia and head injury and producing ground-breaking research in understanding the complexities of human communication."[3]

References
  1. Barron, Chris. "Claire Penn: Leader in field of linguistics who understood 'soft' science". No. Sunday Times. Times Lives. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  2. "The passing of Professor Claire Penn". CoE Fellows. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
  3. "Claire Penn (1951 – )". Order of Mapungubwe. The Presidency, Republic of South Africa. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  4. "South Africa's Women of the Year". SouthAfrica.info. 8 August 2008. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  5. "The women who are changing South Africa ...and the world". Pretoria News. 2 July 2008. p. 6.
  6. "Building a Faculty Network on Africa". Duke Today. 18 September 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
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