Chairman of the AIS Board of Directors Sander Flaum was featured in the September 21 article “Speech Therapy for Stutterers” in the Wall Street Journal. Sander talks about helping people receive speech therapy and the role that his mother played as he grew up with stuttering. Here is the full text of the article:

Speech Therapy for Stutterers
by Pia Catton, Wall Street Journal

Sander Flaum, drawn by Bonnie Gayle Morrill

When Sander Flaum was growing up in Brooklyn, he had a stutter that seemed insurmountable. Today, he is a marketing consultant and adjunct professor at Fordham University who speaks smoothly and fluently.

But the change in his speech didn’t come until he was in his 30s. After hearing about successes taking place at the Hollins Communications Research Institute in Roanoke, Va., he took a three-week leave of absence from his job, enrolled in the course and got the stutter under control.

Now he is making the same opportunity available for others. In 2009, he founded the Rose Flaum Foundation, named for his mother, to enable students to attend speech therapy programs at Hollins and the American Institute for Stuttering.

With a budget of $100,000, he grants up to $4,000 in tuition to those in need. So far, he has relied on funds raised from one major donor: himself. “Right now, I am just doing it myself. I decided to die broke,” he said. (more…)