Quaker Valley grad recently named speech-language professor at Duquesne University
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David S. Ford has dedicated his life to helping people communicate.
The Leetsdale native has been a practicing speech-language pathologist since 2011 after he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Duquesne University.
Ford specializes in voice and upper airway disorders. He has helped singers, teachers, clergy members, call center workers and many others through the years.
“People tie their sense of identity to their voice a lot of times,” he said. “To be able to help people out with any voice problems they’re having and keep their voice healthy in general, to be able to have the tools to do that and help people is the obviously most rewarding part of what I do.
”The way we study (voice) now is relatively new. It’s not an ancient art by any means. There are still discoveries to be made,” he said.
It’s clear that Ford is passionate about his job: “I feel like I have not worked a day in my life in this profession.”
He was recently named assistant professor at the university and program director for its Voice & Upper Airway Clinic at the John G. Rangos School of Health Science.
Ford had served at Thiel College as an assistant professor and clinic director at its Center for Speech-Language Services.
He also earned a doctoral degree from Michigan State University, where he was awarded the #iteachMSU Educator Award.
Ford graduated from Quaker Valley in 2005. A guidance counselor at the high school said he would be suited for speech therapy.
“I did what any other high school kid would do and I completely ignored that and went on to college for something else,” Ford said. “I started as an English major (at Washington & Jefferson College) and didn’t really find my footing.”
He would transfer to Duquesne University and enrolled in speech-language pathology after a conversation with another student about being the only guy in the five-year accelerated program.
“I get to take my passion, which was singing and theater, and actually use that passion to help people,” Ford said. “I can’t believe I can make a career doing this. I applied to their program as a transfer sophomore student. … I happened to find out about it through a girl that was in a random class with me, and the rest is history.”
Theater chapter
Ford ran the nonprofit Sewickley Area Theater Company from 2013-2017.
It had been renting space from the Quaker Valley School District and other partners.
“Without having our own space it was becoming less cost efficient and more work to find space,” Ford said. “It was an amicable split. Our board decided to move on when I decided to go back and do my Ph.D. and focus on that full time. … It was a good experience, and it kind of ran its natural course.”
Ford would meet his future wife, Katie, during the casting of its 2014 production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
She had auditioned, but did not make the cut. She instead worked as stage manager.
The pair would marry at St. James Church in June 2017. They have a son, Austin Blaise Ford.
Growing up
Ford grew up in Leetsdale. He recalled “riding bicycles through the borough and neighboring towns and trying to stay out of trouble.”
“I’ve always viewed Leetsdale, Sewickley, Edgeworth and these areas as the Quaker Valley area,” he said. “I speak fondly of the entire area. It’s such a welcoming and supportive environment.
“I grew up a little different because my dad was a police officer in the area for years. I could never get in trouble as a youth. My dad would hear about it first. I had to be a good kid. It wasn’t so much as I was fearing the police as much as I was fearing my dad.
“It was interesting, and now he’s the magistrate in that area. It’s kind of come full circle.”
Ford graduated from Quaker Valley in 2005.
His father, Rob Ford, has served as district judge for the Quaker Valley area since June 2005.
A longtime police officer who worked on the force in his hometown of Aleppo for 17 years where he climbed the ranks to sergeant and served a few other communities, too.
Ford’s mother, Sandra Ford, worked multiple jobs, including in real estate for Howard Hanna.
She is the current Leetsdale mayor.
“If it weren’t for her and Dad, I probably wouldn’t have a fraction of the success that I do,” Ford said.
He has an older brother, Bob J. “Pooh” Ford, who works on the Leetsdale road crew and is highly involved in the community’s food bank.
University praise
Heather Leavy Rusiewicz, chair of the speech-language pathology department at Duquesne, was among the various university officials to welcome Ford aboard.
“Duquesne is very much built on relationships with each other and with our students, and David definitely exemplifies that priority for Duquesne,” she said. “He’s an exceptional teacher. He also is really connected to one of the other main missions of the university, (which is) to be engaged with the community and helping those who are marginalized.”
Rusiewicz, who also serves as the assistant dean for community engaged learning and service, was excited to see alum on staff.
“I’m proud of David because he’s worked hard and earned the place he’s at in his career,” Rusiewicz said. “Not only have we prepared somebody like David to be successful, but that he actually would want to come and be part of the faculty at the department. It takes everything full circle and demonstrates the strengths of what we do. It’s really quite a wonderful thing.”
There are around 150 total students in the speech-language pathology department.