From SLPD to PhD: Why I Kept Going

When I walked across the stage with my clinical doctorate in hand—the SLPD from Rocky Mountain University—I was proud. Exhausted, yes, but proud. I had completed a rigorous program focused on clinical excellence, leadership, and evidence-based practice. I had implemented change in my setting, grown as a mentor and supervisor, and contributed something meaningful to my field. The SLPD did what it promised: it sharpened my skills as a clinician-educator.

And then… I kept going.

Not because the SLPD wasn’t enough. But because I realized I had more questions than answers, especially about how we educate future clinicians, why certain pedagogical models work, and what our responsibilities are as health professions faculty. So now, I’m deep into a PhD in Health Professions Education—also at RMU—this time with a different lens.

Here’s what I’ve learned (so far) about making that shift.

The SLPD Made Me a Better Clinician. The PhD Is Making Me a Better Thinker.

The SLPD gave me frameworks to evaluate and apply research, lead clinical change, and design better experiences for students in our campus clinic. It was applied, relevant, and deeply grounded in improving real-world practice.

The PhD, though, pushes further upstream. It's less about what we do in the clinic or classroom and more about why we do it that way. It’s about systems. Theory. Assessment. Curriculum design. Faculty development. It’s stretched me in ways I didn’t expect, especially when I realized how many assumptions I was making about learning and teaching just because “that’s how it’s always been.”

The Workload is Real. So is the Growth.

No sugarcoating it—doing a PhD while teaching, parenting, and still answering clinic emails is no joke. I often joke that I have “too many tabs open,” both literally and mentally. But the work feels purposeful. I’m no longer just consuming knowledge. I’m learning to generate it, critique it, and use it to challenge systems that no longer serve learners (or educators).

And because the program is designed for working professionals, there’s space to bring my real-world context into every assignment. I’m not writing papers just to earn grades. I’m writing to solve problems in my department, with my students, and with my institutional constraints.

You Don’t Have to Pick Just One Identity

One of the things I worried about early on was losing my clinical identity. Would this shift make me “less of an SLP”? But the truth is, I haven’t traded one role for another. I’m still supervising. I’m still teaching. I’m still neck-deep in SOAP notes and clock hours. But now I’m also studying curriculum maps, piloting assessment tools, and asking hard questions about equity and access in graduate education.

The PhD didn’t erase my SLPD—it layered onto it. The SLPD gave me a strong clinical and leadership foundation. The PhD is giving me the tools to challenge, refine, and hopefully improve the system from within.

Final Thoughts for Anyone Considering the Next Step

If you’re thinking about what comes next after a clinical doctorate—or wondering whether a PhD is “worth it”—I’ll say this: It depends on your goals. The SLPD gave me what I needed then. The PhD is giving me what I need now. Neither is better nor more important. They’re just different tools for different stages of your career.

But if you’re still curious, still asking big questions about how we train future clinicians, still seeing gaps in the system and wondering how to fix them, the PhD might be calling you, too.

And if it is, know this: you don’t have to stop being a clinician to become a scholar. You just need to be ready to zoom out, ask better questions, and maybe change the way we teach the next generation of SLPs.

A graduate student focused on research in a quiet library setting.