SYLVIA WALTERS, native New Yorker, passed after a courageous battle with cancer in her home in Waxhaw, NC, on August 14, 2021, surrounded by family.

Born in 1948 to immigrant parents from El Salvador, she called Brooklyn, NY, her home.  She became a mom in 1969 and, with a young child, graduated from Brooklyn College in 1974. She then obtained her masters in Speech Language Pathology from Brooklyn College in 1980. Following graduation, Sylvia had a 16 year career at St. Francis School for the Deaf as a teacher, parent educator, and school administrator.

Sylvia had a fulfilling career as a bilingual Speech Language Pathologist. In 2000, she achieved her Doctorate in Bilingual Education from NYU. Her devotion to ensuring that professionals in the field of Speech Language Pathology are well trained to serve an intrinsically diverse society was recognized when she received the American Speech-Language Hearing Association first ever Diversity Award.

In 1994 Sylvia joined the faculty of Long Island University where she eventually became an Associate Professor Emeritus and undergraduate program director in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her achievements at LIU were recognized when she was awarded both the University’s David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Chancellors Award for Distinguished Service. Sylvia was also on the faculty of Teacher’s College Bilingual Institute, and was an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College, where she was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award for faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. 

Sylvia not only had a strong work ethic and devotion to family but felt a passion for social justice and human rights in El Salvador. Sylvia joined the U.S.-based Salvadoran anti-war movement in the 1980’s and traveled the country speaking at many diverse forums and protest rallies. It is through that activism that she met her husband, Ken Walters. The couple married on October 4, 1987.

Sylvia’s family remembers her as a passionate, caring and intelligent woman who deeply loved and was proud of her children and grandchildren. They recall her fondness for singing either made up songs or opera around the house and squeezing and tickling her grandkids. And they’ll never forget the many stories she told her grandchildren about their relatives in El Salvador, and especially about her parents - Papa Julio and Mama Cali.

Sylvia is survived by her husband, Kenneth Walters; her two daughters: Julie Sandoval and husband Edward Keating and Claudia Sandoval and her husband Ian Berke; her grandchildren: Matthew and Michael Keating and Criss, Ella and Luke Berke; and her brother George Yudice.