On Nov. 17, Paul Rao will stand at a podium in front of about 3,000 people in San Diego and give a 20-minute speech that signals the beginning of the end of his one-year term as president.
The Catonsville resident said he won't have butterflies.
Rao has made dozens of speeches, some to crowds as large as the one in San Diego, since taking the helm of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in January.
This time, his speech will kick off the annual conference for ASHA, a national organization of 145,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists and scientists.
"This is an opportunity to have a bully pulpit," Rao said of the volunteer position . "But I'm wiped. I'm done. I'm ready to go."
Having sprinted through the year, he doesn't have the wind for a second one.
Don't misunderstand , he said. He has enjoyed every second of being president. His wife, Martina, a retired audiologist, has been by his side as he traveled the United States and abroad to speak at audiology conventions.
"One of the things he's done this year is so particular to Paul, he has been a remarkable ambassador," said Arlene Pietranton, the executive director of ASHA.
"He has gone to dozens of state association meetings and reached out to members and students to help them connect as directly as possible to the association."
Martina noted that one of the reasons her husband of 41 years ran for president a third time in 2009 after last losing in 2001 was his desire to reach a large group of people.
"The bigger the crowd, the more pleased he is, because he's reaching that many more people about communication disorders," said Martina, who met her husband while they studied audiology at Catholic University.
"He's somebody that could talk about the Yellow Pages and you'd wonder how it turned out," she said.
As president, Rao played a role in changing the policies of certain insurance carriers to benefit those with communication disorders and integrated the goals of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association with ASHA's, he said.
For Rao, the chief operating officer at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington D.C., audiology is more than a job.
"My true passion is helping folks overcome communication disorders," Rao said, noting he has watched the Oscar-nominated movie "The King's Speech," about perhaps the most famous stutterer, King George VI, three times.
Communication is so important because it is the key to everything else, he said.
He quoted Daniel Webster, saying, "If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain the rest."
According to the website of the National Institute of Health, 46 million people in the United States have disordered speech.
"Ultimately it affects every single person," said Martina McLean, Rao's daughter, who also works as an audiologist. "It really affects ages 0 to 99 of all walks of life."
McLean, also a Catonsville resident, noted that autism and developmental language delay are some of the more prevalent communication disorders among children.
Stroke, she noted, often impacts the elderly's ability to communicate.
It was because of her parents' devotion to the field that she chose to follow in their footsteps.
"In their work life, I understood they committed themselves to helping others," said McLean, who works in Howard County schools three times a week and two days in private practice.
"Having been around it all my life and seeing their impact on people's lives, it was kind of a no-brainer," she said.
Rao said one of the last speeches of his presidential career will focus on four people in the organization who have gone above and beyond to achieve ASHA's goal of "making effective communication a human right accessible and achievable by all."
Once the three-day conference ends, Rao has another trip planned with his wife.
But it won't have anything to do with audiology or speech pathology.
It's a vacation to South Africa for a tour of Johannesburg and a safari.
Rao said he's looking forward to the trip after nearly a year of working 20 hours each week as president of the association in addition to his full-time job at the hospital.
Rao will carry only fond memories of the position as he moves into his post-president life.
"It's far exceeded my expectations. It's much better than I've anticipated," Rao said . "It's a year that I've embraced, I loved it.
"It's been a great run for me."