Excellence in Telehealth Award
Background
The Dr. James Bush Award for Excellence in Telehealth was established in 2022 to recognize a telehealth champion in Wyoming that has accomplished outstanding work in the field of telehealth, including helping to remove barriers to implementation and adoption, innovative programs and activities, technology, patient and/or provider support, education, and training. If you have anyone you would like to nominate for a future Excellence in Telehealth Award, please email wytn@uwyo.edu.
2025 Award Recipient: Chelsea Paulus
Chelsea and her team at Connect Speech Therapy, provide speech and language therapy services to over 400 clients, with ages ranging from 0 to 90 years. They’ve worked to engage and educate school administrators about the role of telehealth in implementing accessible, sustainable, and evidence-based therapy models. These efforts have been successful, as they currently deliver hybrid and virtual care to several school districts across Wyoming, and two Child Development Centers.
Beyond her role providing direct-services to the people of rural Wyoming and Montana, Chelsea is the chair of the Committee on Telepractice on the board for the Wyoming Speech-Language-Hearing Association (WyoSHA). In this role, Chelsea’s “strong desire to improve speech-language services for people in our state” has shined. Her advocacy for the integration of telehealth into standard therapy practices has created waves throughout Wyoming and Montana and continues to expand healthcare access to rural and frontier communities.
Chelsea worked as an early intervention specialist in Alaska before earning her Master of Science in speech-language-pathology from Bowling Green State University in 2016. In November of 2017 she founded Connect Speech Therapy in Sheridan, WY after recognizing the need for speech-language services in Wyoming. Originally based in Sheridan, Connect Speech Therapy has recently opened a clinic in Lander, and currently employs 14 speech-language pathologists, and speech-language pathology assistants.
Congratulations, Chelsea! Thank you for your commitment and dedication to improving access to care in Wyoming.
