Leading speech pathologist Mrs Mary-Ruth Mendel, the 2012 NSW Australia Day Ambassador, will be the special guest at a lunch organised by the Charles Sturt University (CSU) speech pathology program in Albury-Wodonga on Wednesday 25 January. Ms Libby Clark, the organiser of the lunch and lecturer in the speech pathology program within the School of Community Health at CSU in Albury-Wodonga, said this was a wonderful opportunity for speech pathologists and early childhood educators in the region to meet and hear a leader in the field. “Mrs Mendel is a distinguished speech pathologist, specialising in literacy and language learning issues. While she has an international client base for her private practice in Sydney, she has also shown, through the development of a range of programs, a real commitment to supporting literacy in indigenous languages.” Ms Clark said. “She has many achievements and we are delighted that she has made time to visit Charles Sturt University in Albury-Wodonga before officiating at Australia Day activities on Thursday. This will be a wonderful opportunity to discuss potential links between the work that Mrs Mendel has been doing and the projects related to indigenous language and literacy that are being carried out by Charles Sturt University speech pathology students and staff in Condobolin and Wagga Wagga.”