Communicative Disorders
Student Accomplishments
The Department of Communicative Disorders are very proud to recognize Matt Gould for the Starkey 2009 Outstanding Student Clinician Scholarship and (Katherine) Michelle Gibbons for the 2009 William F. Austin Scholarship.
March 2009 - From online fundraising to participating in a tremendous number of events for Relay for Life, Communicative Disorders (CD's) student group NSSLHA shows UF and the community how much Speech Pathologists give back. CD's Team during the Relay of Life was the SECOND MOST FUNDRAISING team with just over $7,000 raised!! The CD Team was also the highest ONLINE fundraising team per capita The team's campsite was also nominated by the cancer survivors as the BEST site with a theme of the North Pole. Way to go CD gators for a great cause! We are proud of you!
The 2009 New Investigator Grant was awarded to Teresa Pitts, MA CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathology for meritorious scientific research in swallowing and
swallowing disorders for her presentation entitled:
Pitts, T.E., Hegland, K., Chan, S., Sapienza, C., & Davenport, P. Somatosensory
Cortical Evoked Potentials from the Oral-Pharyngeal Wall: Healthy and PD. Dysphagia
Research Society. March 5-8, 2009: New Orleans, LA.
Michelle Troche, CD doctoral student was awarded the 2008 New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship from the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation, was a 2008 O. Ruth McQuown Scholarship Supplementary Award Recipient and a 2008 NIDCD Student Fellowship: Clinical Aphasiology.
Helena Laciuga joins CD department in Spring 2009 as new PhD student under the mentorship of Dr. Christine Sapienza. She received B.A. in Voice Performance and Acting from Academy of Music in Gdansk and Certificate of Post Graduate Studies of Speech Pathology from University of Gdansk, Poland. Helena gained her professional experience in Poland when working as a voice emission instructor in the Department of Speech Pathology of the University of Gdansk, a voice/speech pathologist in cooperation with local otolaryngologists, and as a speech – language pathologist in the school setting. She has been a performing classical singer and a choir director in Poland and the U.S. Laciuga’s professional areas of interest include: speech and voice disorders, laryngectomy rehabilitation, dysphagia, respiratory dysfunctions.
The May 09 graduating class of speech-language pathology students in the Department of Communicative Disorders had a 100% pass rate on the national exam, their oral exams, and their written comprehensive exam.
Congratulations to Alicia M. Yimoniye, awarded the 2008 Charles Vincent & Heidi Cole McLaughlin Scholar
Congratulations to Sarah H. Funderburke, awarded 2008 Hazen E Nutter Scholar
Six CD students names as Anderson scholars: Congratulations to Denise Magdales, Vicky Pao,Krysta M. Aguis, Paige M. Crombie,Laura J. Davidson. Thomas S. Kaskie. Anderson Scholars hold Distinction (3.8 GPA or above after two years of undergraduate study at UF) and are recognized during the CLAS Fall Convocation
ASHA 2008 poster session: Item Bank Development for a Phonologic Test of Aphasia; Christina M. del Toro, Matthew Comer, Katherine Malek, Sally Waters, Jonathan Wilson, & Diane L. Kendall. Christina is a CD PhD student working with Dr. Diane Kendall, CD adjunct faculty member.
Jenna Silver and Dorothy Bourgeoise presented their work at the 2008 Spring Acoustical Society of America.
Their talks were:
Silver, J., Wayland, R., and Harnsberger, J. D. “Categorization, category goodness, and psychophysical difference in perceptual assimilation.” To be presented at the 156th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008.
Bourgeoise, D., Brown, W. S., Shrivastav, R., and Rothman, H. B., and Harnsberger, J, D. “Perceived age in normal and pathological voices.” To be presented at the 156th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008.
Congratulations to the 2008 SERTOMA Scholarship awardees:
Jason Schmitt, a 3rd year Au.D. student, and
Nicole Rose, an incoming 1st year Au.D. student.
Michelle Trcohe was a recipient of a 2008 O. Ruth McQuown Scholarship Supplementary Award for graduate students at the University of Florida.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Herrera for receiving the 2007 University Scholars Program Best Paper Award. Her mentor on the project is Dr. Edith Kaan, Linguistics Professor.
Sona Patel, a CD doctoral student, was invited to serve on the Speech Science Program committee for the 2009 ASHA Convention. Her mentor is Dr. Rahul Shrivastav. Congratulations Sona.
Sona Patel recently received the Threadgill Dissertation Fellowship for the summer term 2007. She will be awarded a tuition waiver and stipend from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Congruatulations to Sona and her mentor, Dr. Rahul Shrivastav.
Sona Patel, CD doctoral student, has been invited to present her paper entitled "How do you feel today? Detecting emotions in speech" at the AAPS special session platform presentation, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention in Boston, MA, November 2007. Her co-authors are Drs. Rahul Shirvastav, James Harnsbergeer and Mini Shrivastav.
The undergraduate honors thesis of Stephanie Argyros (BA 2007) has been published in
the Journal of Undergraduate Research and she is their Featured Scholar on the
front page of their website. Her project "Memory for General and Specific Words in
Alzheimer Disease" was mentored by Dr. Lori Altmann. Ms. Argyros is currently a graduate
student in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of
Florida.
Journal of Undergraduate Research site
-see story on Stephanie Argyros
Congratulations to Peter Park, a CD doctoral candidate, under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Lombardino, who received one of 47 Student Research Travel Awards (SRTA) to attend the ASHA Annual Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, November 15-17, 2007. He will be presenting his first authored paper entitled "Phonological Processing, Spoken Language Skills, & Reading in Hearing-Impaired Children." The SRTA is to highlight the research activities of "budding" scientists and encourage careers in science and research.
Andrew John successfully defended his dissertation entitled, "The Role of Clinically
Applicable Temporal Resolution and Working Memory Tests in Prediction of Speech
Perception and Hearing Handicap", on July 11, 2007. This dissertation was supervised
by Dr. Jay Hall of the Department of Communicative Disorders (chair), Dr. Scott Griffiths
and Dr. Pat Kricos of the Department of Communicative Disorders, and Dr.
Robin West of the Department of Psychology, University of Florida.
On July 31, Andrew will join the faculty of the University of Oklahoma Health Science
Center, Department of Communicative Disorders, College of Allied Health
http://www.ah.ouhsc.edu/csd/ as an assistant
professor. In addition to continuing his research program, he will teach courses in the
OU Doctor of Audiology program, which is the only Au.D. program in the state.
Congratulations Andrew!
Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Branksi, UF Alumnus of the Department of Communicative Disorders Masters in SLP program for his recent selection for the 2008 Early Career Contributions in Research of the American Speech Language and Hearing Association. This award is designed to acknowledge scientific accomplishments by individuals in the early stages of their careers (defined as within five years of receiving the doctoral degree or other terminal degree). Dr. Branski received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently working at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.
Professional Leadership Award Goes to UF AU.D. Graduate. click for more info.
Congratulations to Stacie Cummings (mentor. R. Shrivastav), Kyle Fahsholtz (mentor
M. Shrivastav) and Elizabeth Herrara (mentor, E. Kahn, Linguistics) for their selection
to the 2007-2008 University Scholar program. Each student was selected based on the
merit of their proposed research project and strong academic achievements.
Their final work will be presented at the University Scholars symposium in spring 2008
with possible publication in the Journal of Undergraduate Research. The award
includes 3,000 to use for their research projects.
Congratulations to Christina Del Toro, CD PhD student for her recently funded NIH/NIDCD F31 award entitled "Standardized Assessment of Phonology in Aphasia.: Her mentor is Dr. Diane Kendall.
Jay Sheehan and Nicole Kreisman were recipients of the 2007 American Academy of Audiology Student Research Award. Each year the AAA makes only 5 of the highly competitive Student Research awards to graduate students.
Jay Sheehan received the AAA Student Research Award for his doctoral dissertation entitled "Outcomes of FM System Usage in Places of Worship." (Dissertation advisor: Scott Griffths.
Nicole Kreisman, now a faculty member at Towson University, received the AAA Student Research Award for her doctoral dissertation entitled "Psychosocial Impact of APD: Implications for Audiologists." (Dissertation advisors: Carl Crandell and James W. Hall III).
Mr. Jungjun (Peter) Park was awarded a Nutter Dissertation Fellowship from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the amount of 5,000 to be used in the Spring 2007 term for his dissertation project.
The UF chapter of Phi Beta Kappa has elected two CD majors, Katie Jo Drane and Kira Gabrielle Solan, to the Society in its Fall 2006 evaluation. Election is based both on outstanding GPAs, and breadth of coursework in the liberal arts and sciences. Congratulations Katie and Kira!
Diana Armas, an undergraduate student in CD, has received a 2006 Minority Student Leadership Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association that will allow her to travel to Miami this November to participate in the organization's national convention. She will take part in a leadership-focused educational program with other undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in communicative disorders programs across the country.
Michelle Troche was awarded a 2006 ASHA student travel research award. Michelle will be presenting her work entitled "Effects of Bolus Consistency on Timing and Penetration/Aspriation of Swallow in Patients with Parkinson's Disease". Her mentor is Dr. Christine Sapienza.
Congratulations to Kristin Johnston, one of our recent Au.D. graduates and current Ph.D. students for an award from the Leo Doerfler Memorial Scholarship from the Audiology Foundation of America for the school year 2006-2007.
Cassie Effort, a 3rd-year Doctor of Audiology (Au.D) student in Communicative Disorders was recently selected to receive the Audiology Foundation of America's (AFA) Outstanding Third Year Au.D. Student Scholarship. She is one of two students who will receive a $4,500 scholarship for the 2006-2007 academic year.
Laura B. Demetree, a 2nd-year Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) student in Communicative Disorders was recently selected to receive the Audiology Foundation of America's (AFA) Outstanding Second Year Au.D. Student Scholarship. AFA's mission is to transform audiology into a healthcare profession with the Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) as the first professional degree. The AFA is committed to fostering the education and training of audiologists and to promote the autonomous practice of audiology for the benefit of the general public.**
**Laura is one of two students who will receive a $4500 award for the 2005-2006 academic year from AFA. Established in 2001, the scholarships are funded by a grant from the Oticon Foundation, also known as the William Demant and Wife Ida Emilie Foundation. Students, who must be nominated by their program directors, are selected based on academic achievement and professional potential. Congratulations Laura for your Outstanding Achievement.