Pedro Andres Alba Diaz
Pedro Andres Alba Diaz is a PhD student whose research focuses on auditory signal processing and cochlear mechanics under the mentorship of Dr. Srikanta Mishra. Pedro holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Guanajuato in Mexico and a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the Universität zu Lübeck and the Technische Hochschule Lübeck in Germany, where he gained experience in auditory research. He has contributed to projects evaluating cochlear implant models and decoding auditory attention. Pedro enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family outside of academia.
Amanda Ortiz-Alvarez
Amanda Ortiz-Alvarez is a Spanish-English bilingual speech-language pathologist and PhD student currently working alongside her mentor, Dr. Courtney Byrd, at the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research. Amanda received her BA in Foreign Languages and Linguistics, as well as her MS in Speech-Language Pathology, at the University of New Mexico. Amanda's research presently strives toward exploring the lived experiences of people who stutter/stutterers and their families/relevant others to elucidate facilitators of support, adaptive change, and empowerment for individuals to communicate authentically and live life on their terms.
Sajana Aryal
Sajana Aryal is a doctoral student currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant under the mentorship of Dr. Srikanta Mishra. She earned her undergraduate degree in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology from the Institute of Medicine at Maharajgunj Medical Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal. Following that, she pursued a master's degree in Audiology at the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, affiliated with Mysore University in India. She has accumulated three years of professional experience as a clinical Audiologist in private hospitals and clinics in Nepal. Her research interests encompass a variety of topics within the field, including tinnitus, hyperacusis, misophonia, cochlear synaptopathy, and extended high-frequency hearing loss. Sajana is originally from the beautiful country Nepal.
Yao Chen
Yao Chen (M.S., CCC-SLP) is a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Chang Liu in Speech Psychophysics Lab. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from Tsinghua University, China and her master’s degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from UT Austin, United States. Her research interests include speech perception in noise and treatment efficacy of parent training among children with autism. She is from China.
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.
Leah Du
Leah is a doctoral student studying under the mentorship of Dr. Liberty Hamilton. Leah earned her bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and technology/artificial intelligence from Xiamen University and her master’s degree in psychology from New York University. Her research interest lies in understanding how bilingualism is represented in the human brain using electrophysiological methods.
Nayanika Ghosh
Nayanika Ghosh is a doctoral student in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. She completed her undergraduate and Master’s degrees in speech-language pathology at the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore. She also completed hospital internships in speech-language pathology and worked as a clinical speech-language pathologist in India before beginning the Ph.D. program at UT. Her research interests include neurological voice disorders and evidence-based treatment of voice.
Carrie Hutchins
Carrie Hutchins received both her B.S. and M.S. degrees in CSD from Western Kentucky University. She has nearly 15 years of experience as a public school-based Speech Language Pathologist and is passionate about developmental language disorders and school-based issues. Carrie is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work in the Children's Language, Literacy, and Learning (CL3) Lab addresses school-based professional issues and effective practices for children with DLD in schools.
Jilliane Lagus
Jilliane Marai Lagus, MS, CCC-SLP, is a pre-candidacy doctorate student under the mentorship of Dr. Corinne Jones at the Swallow Modulation Laboratory. She completed a BS in Speech Pathology at the University of the Philippines Manila and an MS in Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas. Jilliane is interested in the thoughtful examination of the neuroscience of the aging swallow using data science techniques to unearth development patterns otherwise undetectable by manual or traditional analysis. A deeper understanding of how healthy humans eat and drink safely well into vulnerable older age will help clinicians determine better interventions that can help prevent or mitigate swallowing disorders and their effects (malnutrition, dehydration, death). Off-duty, Jilliane's goals include walking 10,000 steps a day, listening to audiobooks at x2 speed, watersports, and learning about new languages and food.
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.
Rylee Manning
Rylee Manning is a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Stephanie Grasso in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research (MADR) Lab. She received a master’s degree in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastián, Spain. She also earned an M.Phil in Linguistics from Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on developing assessment and treatment for multilingual speakers with aphasia resulting from stroke, injury and neurodegenerative disease.
Lauren Ralston
Lauren Ralston completed her Bachelor’s Degree (B.S.) and Doctorate of Audiology (Au.D.) at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a clinical audiologist and Ph.D. student under the mentorship of Julia Campbell. Her research in the Central Sensory Processes Laboratory examines how the brain reorganizes when individuals have tinnitus and/or hearing loss.
Enjoli Richardson
Enjoli Richardson is a doctoral student at The University of Texas at Austin under the mentorship of Dr. Courtney T. Byrd. She is a licensed and certified Speech-Language Pathologist with the American Speech-Language- Hearing Association. Her current research interests include exploring the intersections of Race, Gender, and Disability within culturally and linguistically diverse populations who stutter.
JoLynn Riojas
JoLynn Riojas completed her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Courtney T. Byrd. Her research interests include empowering the voices of school-age children who stutter and inspiring change in school-based speech therapy with an approach focused of communication, advocacy, resiliency, and education.
Keerthana (Keerthi) Stanley
Keerthi is a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Jun Wang, and works as a graduate research assistant in the Speech Disorders and Technology Lab. She received her bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from UT Dallas in 2023. Her research interests include better understanding the cognitive processes underlying speech planning and production as well as speech kinematics, both typical and disordered.
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.
Xinming Zhou
Xinming Zhou is a doctoral student in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences studying under the mentorship of Dr. Chang Liu. Xinming received her B.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of Connecticut and an M.S. in Neuroscience from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests lie in the cognitive and neural processes of speech perception, particularly accented speech and speech-in-noise perception among typical and atypical populations.