NSU Grad Dedicates Her Career to Helping Voices Be Heard

Speech language pathologist Melissa Grassia-Chisholm has built her career on a specialty practiced by only 5 percent in her field– treating voice, swallow, and airway disorders. The enthusiasm and passion for her job is evident when she talks about her journey in health care.

“Let me warn you, I talk a lot,” said Grassia-Chisholm, who graduated in 2011 with a Master’s of Science in Speech at Nova Southeastern University. “Remember after all, I’m a speech language pathologist.”

Grassia-Chisholm says music has always been her passion and that she still sings locally today. Before coming to NSU, she studied vocal performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was at Berklee that famous performers such as composer and record producer Quincy Jones and saxophonist Branford Marsalis developed their skills.

However, Grassia-Chisholm’s career interests shifted after she suffered a vocal cord hemorrhage while singing.

“There was no ‘me’ in South Florida that could help me with my injury,” she said, referring to a skilled professional treating voice disorders. “So, I decided to change that in the future.”

After earning her degree, she worked for Memorial Healthcare System and Catholic Health Services for five years each. Grassia-Chisholm then became manager of Cleveland Clinic’s Speech Pathology Department for seven years.

“One of the first things I did at Cleveland Clinic was to make sure that they had a student program,” she said, adding how she recruited several NSU students for an opportunity to work with adults who faced speech-language challenges. “I love NSU, I love teaching, and mentorship is my big thing.”

After Cleveland Clinic, Grassia-Chisholm started her own business, Voice Rehab LLC, and began working exclusively with South Florida ENT Associates, building a speech pathology program across 12 locations in South Florida ranging from Homestead to Boca Raton. (ENTs are ear, nose, and throat specialists.) She also created a “virtual voice rehab clinic” on her website that provides tutorial videos and free live-voice coaching in English and Spanish.

Voice Rehab LLC works with a variety of clients, much to the delight of Grassia-Chisholm.

“On one hand, we work with people recovering from spinal surgery and cancer, as well as stroke patients,” she said. “On the other, we treat athletes, musicians, public speakers, and CEOs.”

In the case of strokes, spinal surgeries, head and neck cancers, and thyroidectomies, patients often exhibit swallowing problems, which can lead to other health complications such as pneumonia, according to Grassia-Chisholm. And athletes, such as football players and runners, often experience airway disorders and seek medical help in learning how to moderate their breathing patterns when physically expending a lot of energy.

Grassia-Chisholm says head and neck cancer patients have been her toughest patients but also her most rewarding.

“I had a patient who had been in speech therapy for a year and never got better. His voice was still raspy,” she said. “I scoped him and found out he had full-blown cancer of his vocal cords, which required having his larynx removed. His symptoms had been mistaken for Parkinson’s. He thanked me profusely for identifying the problem before it turned deadly.”

As Grassia-Chisholm continues to expand her business model, she hopes to find a better way to serve more of the senior community through hosting educational seminars and assessments.

“I really feel like that’s our underserved — the baby boomer population,” she said.