Ida J. Stockman is Professor Emerita at Michigan State University and an accomplished speech-language pathologist with master’s (University of Iowa-1965) and doctoral (Pennsylvania State University-1971) degrees in the field. She joined the MSU faculty in 1983 after teaching at Howard University and research appointments at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington DC and the Kantonsspital in St. Gallen, Switzerland. A professor for 24 years in MSU’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Stockman’s work promoted innovation on two fronts. She helped to change the framework from a deficit to difference perspective on the language of African American children in research, teaching and professional - credentialing practices. Her work, inspired by Swiss scholars, also brought focal attention to the tactual-kinesthetic properties of movement and action experience in developing language and cognition. In a year-long, cross-disciplinary symposium at MSU in 1995-96, Stockman featured invited scholars on the topic, as documented in her 2004 book (Elsevier). In addition to course instruction, Stockman has championed both the multicultural and perceptual-cognitive initiatives in more than 200 scholarly works, which include refereed and invited journal publications and conferences in state, national and international venues. She also has rendered services to more than two-dozen professional boards and committees. A trail blazer, Stockman’s awards for professional contributions include MSU’s 1996 Distinguished Faculty Awardand the 2006 Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, its highest award.