Meet Our Doctoral Students

tiffany chavers

Tiffany Chavers

Tiffany Chavers is a doctoral student and certified speech-language pathologist studying under the mentorship of Dr. Rajinder Koul. Her research interests include assessment and intervention for individuals who communicate by augmentative and alternative means. Specifically, Tiffany is interested in effective ways for individuals with ALS to communicate using eye gaze.

Cissy Cheng

Cissy Cheng

Cissy Cheng is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Rajinder Koul. Cissy earned her BA in Linguistics from Fudan University and her MS in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from Boston University. She has experience working with clients with aphasia, autism, and voice disorders. Her research interests include speech production training using visual support, and treatment efficacy of AAC devices for people with aphasia. During her spare time, Cissy enjoys watching tennis and running.

FY cheng

FanYin Cheng

FanYin Cheng is a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Craig Champlin. She has research experience in linguistics, language, and cognitive sciences. She is currently interested in the subcortical mechanisms underlying behavioral responses in linguistic contexts. Additionally, she is interested in the responses of typical and atypical auditory systems to complex sounds including speech and uses electrophysiological methods in her investigations.

robyn croft

Robyn Croft

Robyn Croft, MS, is a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Courtney Byrd. Robyn earned her BS from the University of Texas at Austin and her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Texas Christian University. Currently, she is completing her clinical fellowship at the Lang Stuttering Institute to earn her full certification as a speech-language pathologist. Robyn's research interests include the interpersonal contributions to stuttering treatment, stigma and stereotype threat reduction, and resilience-building in the stuttering population.

PhD student Maansi Desai

Maansi Desai

Maansi Desai is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Liberty Hamilton. Her research interests include utilizing invasive and non-invasive electrophysiological methods (ECoG/EEG) to understand how the brain represents natural sound processing, specifically in music and speech.

PhD student Garret Kurteff

Garret Kurteff

Garret Kurteff is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Liberty Hamilton. Their background is in psychology, linguistics, and neurosurgery and research interests include describing the neurobiology of speech production via electrophysiological methods, as well as development of treatment techniques for people with neurobiological impairment of language via brain-computer interfaces. They are also pursuing a Masters in Speech Language Pathology.

Mimi Lavalley

Mimi LaValley

Mimi LaValley is a certified speech-language pathologist studying under the mentorship of Dr. Rajinder Koul. Her area of interest is improving access to AAC and assistive technology for bilingual individuals with neurodevelopmental and acquired language disorders in a variety of settings including acute care.

Gary Robinaugh

Gary Robinaugh

Gary Robinaugh is a licensed speech-language pathologist and a doctoral student in the Aphasia Research and Treatment Lab. He is interested in researching effective treatment for aphasia and related disorders.

Kristin Teplansky

Kristin Teplansky

Kristin Teplansky is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Jun Wang. Her research in the Speech Disorders and Technology lab primarily focuses on kinematic and acoustic measures of speech motor control in individuals diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Kristin also investigates tongue and lip motion patterns in voiced, silent and alaryngeal speech.

Rachel Tessmer

Rachel Tessmer

Rachel Tessmer is a doctoral student in the SoundBrain Lab. Her research interests include the neurocognitive processes contributing to speech perception, psycholinguistics, and neurorehabilitation.

Lisa Wauters - PHD

Lisa Wauters

Lisa is a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Maya Henry and works as a research speech-language pathologist at the Aphasia Research and Treatment Lab. She earned her MA in Speech-Language Pathology from UT Austin in 2016. Her primary areas of research include assessment and treatment of aphasia and cognitive-communication disorders associated with stroke, neurodegenerative disease and traumatic brain injury.

katie winters

Katie Winters

Katie Winters is a doctoral student, a certified speech-language pathologist, and a clinical supervisor in the Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute. Her research interests include effective measurement of cognitive and affective components of stuttering, clinical education related to fluency disorders, and evaluation and treatment of fluency disorders, language disorders, and social communication.

Maxine Wu

Mengxuan Wu

Maxine Wu is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Rajinder Koul. Maxine has a background in Human Systems Engineering and Applied Psychology. Her area of interest is assistive technology for people with communication impairment.

Can Xu

Can Xu

Can Xu is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Chang Liu, studying in Speech Psychophysics Lab. She has experience in speech perception in noise for different populations, including native and non-natives, old and young people. Can’s current research looks at non-natives’ speech production by using both acoustic analysis and electrophysiological techniques.

Megan Young

Megan Young

Megan Young is a doctoral student and certified speech-language pathologist studying under the mentorship of Dr. Courtney Byrd. She also serves as a clinical supervisor and research associate in the Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute. Her research interests include the cognitive and affective components of stuttering evaluation and treatment, stigma, multilingualism, and counseling approaches in speech-language pathology.