Personnel
Stephanie Grasso, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor
Lab Director
Dr. Stephanie Grasso completed her master’s and doctoral training in the department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at UT Austin. She is a bilingual speech-language pathologist by training and her research investigates neurologically-based communication disorders within the context of bilingualism. In addition, her research examines bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve in neurodegenerative disorders affecting language and cognition.
Maya Henry, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Associate Professor
Lab Co-Director
Dr. Henry is a speech-language pathologist by training. Her clinical and research interests lie in the nature and treatment of aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders, with a special focus on primary progressive aphasia.
Camille Wagner Rodriguez, MS, CCC-SLP
Bilingual Research Speech-Language Pathologist
Camille works as a Bilingual Speech Language Pathology in the MADR Lab. She holds an M.S. in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from University of Texas Austin, and an M.A. in English Linguistics from the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. Her long term goal is to be part of the group of professionals elevating the standard of care for patients with neurogenic communication and swallowing disorders in the culturally and linguistically diverse Caribbean.
Sonia-Karin Marques-Kiderle
Research Speech-Language Pathologist
Sonia is a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) from the Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). She graduated as an SLT from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the KU Leuven University (Belgium, Erasmus Programme) after having completed her graduate thesis on the study of the efficacy of the VISTA and LRT treatments in PPA. She works as a bilingual SLT in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab (MADRlab) focusing on the evaluation and treatment of Catalan and Spanish-speaking patients. She also works closely with Dr. Miguel Ángel Santos-Santos, in the Memory Unit of the Sant Pau Hospital, Barcelona, currently developing an improved language battery to diagnose patients with PPA. As a multilingual herself, she is passionate about the study of language and neurodiversity research. Her main goal from participating in the MADRlab is to help patients maintain or improve their quality of life, with an optimistic and intensive practice approach.
Núria Montagut Colomer
Núria has been a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) since 2004. She received her Bachelor's, Postgraduate, and Master's degrees at the Universitat Autonoma and Universitat Ramon Lull in Barcelona. Currently, Núria works in an inpatient setting with patients in the acute phase at the Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Stroke Unit, as well as in an outpatient setting where she works with individuals with movement disorders, dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. She also collaborates with the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab (MADRlab) focusing on Catalan and Spanish-speaking patients. Her thesis research focuses on Speech and Language Therapy in Primary Progressive Aphasia. Núria is passionate about different treatment approaches for improving or maintaining language, speech, and swallowing abilities.
Maria Fernanda Quiñones Vieta, MS, CF SLP
Maria Fernanda works as a Clinical Research Assistant in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab. Her research interests include language transfer effects on bilingual treatment, bilingual language development, and disorders in the context of bilingualism. She is passionate about inclusivity and bridging cultural and linguistic divides in the field.
Júlia Merce
Júlia is a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) from the Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain). She completed a master's degree in Oropharyngeal Dysphagia at the Clinical School of Neuropsychology and Language Pathology and in Nutrition and Health at the Open University of Catalonia. Her clinical work initially focused on Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems with individuals with cerebral palsy and neurodegenerative diseases. She continued her clinical practice in the hospital setting, predominantly treating dysphagia and aphasia. Currently, she works as a bilingual SLT in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab (MADRlab) focusing on the evaluation and treatment of Catalan and Spanish-speaking patients. She is passionate about language, communication and swallowing disorders and her main goal as a therapist is to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.
Diana F Cruz, MA, CCC-SLP
Diana works as a Bilingual Speech Language Pathologist in the MADR Lab. She holds an M.A. in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. She has a passion for developing new therapeutic approaches tailored to the needs of bilingual individuals with neurodegenerative disorders and implementing evidence-based practices in clinical settings, with a primary focus on elevating treatment outcomes and enriching the lives of those she serves.
Estefanía, García
Speech therapist Estefanía García Hernández graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences in Manresa (UAB). Afterwards, she completed a master's degree in Neurologopedia at the Clinical School of Neuropsychology and Language Pathology at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.
Her clinical work initially focused on the rehabilitation of language, speech, and swallowing in patients with aphasia, dysarthria, and dysphagia. She continued her clinical practice, specializing in the treatment of communication disorders in the pediatric population with functional diversity and the use of Alternative and Augmentative Communication Systems.
Currently, she works as a bilingual SLP in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab (MADRlab) focusing on the evaluation and treatment of Catalan and Spanish-speaking patients. She is passionate about language and neurology. Her main goal as a therapist is to improve the quality of life of patients with Neurodegenerative diseases and their families.
Graduate Students
Gary Robinaugh, M.S., CCC-SLP
Affilitated Doctoral Student
Gary earned a B.S. in Communication Disorders with minors in Linguistics and Spanish from Brigham Young University and an M.A. in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Prior to joining the Aphasia Research and Treatment Lab, Gary worked as a speech language pathologist for several years in skilled nursing, private practice, and school settings. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Gary’s research interests center around aphasia caused by stroke or neurodegenerative disease, including treatment for multilingual individuals, analysis of connected speech, and multi-modal treatments for severe aphasia
Jan Holst, PhD
Research Consultant
Dr. Jan Holst works as a consultant in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab. He holds a PhD and a MD in Linguistics from the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (Mexico). He is mostly interested in the relationship between language impairments and several linguistic components. His previous research has been focused on the use of subjunctive among Spanish-speaking children with SLI/DLD and in the comprehension of spatial deictic terms in children with ASD. Currently, Jan is completing his MS-SLP degree at UT Austin.
Lokesh
Lokesh earned a B.S. from UT Austin and started working with UT's Aphasia Lab in early 2021. They are currently a PhD student studying Neuroengineering at Rice University. In 2021, they used their background in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to construct an automated pipeline that takes in an English audio/written sample and outputs linguistic and acoustic variables relevant to diagnosis of dementia/aphasia. In 2022, they used Machine Learning (ML) to build diagnostics that uses these variables to predict a English speaker's clinical status. They're working with the MADRLab to recreate a similar pipeline and diagnostic for Spanish and Catalan Speakers. One of their main future academic interests is using NLP and ML to build diagnostics for non-English speakers.
Jo-Ali Acosta
Jo-Ali Acosta is a graduate research assistant in the MADR Lab. She is a first-year graduate student in the MSSLHS program at UT Austin. She earned her B.S. in Speech, Language and Hearing Science from Arizona State University. Jo-Ali spent some time as a Speech-Language Pathologist Assistant where she worked primarily with the bilingual population. She is passionate about working with the bilingual population through research and intervention.
Whendy Avila Motta
Whendy Motta is a graduate research assistant in the MADR Lab and a first year MSSLHS student at UT Austin. She holds a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Chapman University and a BA in ESL Education from Universidad Surcolombiana (Neiva, Colombia). In Colombia, Whendy spent several years as an English teacher for both children and adults and as a bilingual representative for a telecommunications company. Her research interests include bilingual speech pathology, bilingual language development, neurogenic speech disorders, and swallowing disorders. In her free time, she likes to go to the movies, relax by the pool, dance salsa, and spend time with her friends and family.
Collaborators
Miguel Ángel Santos-Santos
Sant Pau Memory Unit
See Dr. Santos-Santos' profile at Sant Pau
Maria Luisa Gorno Tempini, MD, Ph.D
Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco
Albalab
Jordi Matias-Guiu
Department of Neurology of the Hospital Clinico San Carlos
See Dr. Matias-Guiu's research profile
Jessica Deleon
UCSF Memory and Aging Center
See Dr. Deleon's profile at UCSF
Ana Luisa Sosa-Ortiz
Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía
See Dr. Sosa-Ortiz's research profile
Heather Dial, PhD
University of Houston
See Dr. Dial's profile at UH
Eduardo Europa, PhD, CCC-SLP
California State University, Chico
Lindsey Wineholt M.A., CCC-SLP
Clinical Collaborator,
Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, UT Health Austin
See Lindsey's profile at UT Health Austin
Borna Bonakdarpour, MD
Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
See Bonakdarpour's profile at Northwestern Medicine
Aida Suárez González, PhD
Dementia Research Centre,
University College London
Laura Augé Domènech
Assistant Professor at the UAB Department of Medicine
Carlota Faixa Sol
Assistant Professor at the UAB Department of Medicine
See Faixa's research profile at
Karla Patricia Gutiérrez Sánchez
Medical doctor with clinical and research specialization in psychiatry, geriatrics and dementia
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Giselle Yoshimoto is a third-year Moody Honors student pursuing a B.S. in Speech, Laguage, and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Educational Psychology. Under the guidance of Dr. Stephanie Grasso and Camille Wagner Rodriguez, Giselle volunteers as an undergraduate research assistant in the MADR-Lab. Giselle is also currently involved in the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association as well as the Lang Stuttering Institute Student Leadership Organization. She is passionate about helping others especially those in underserved communities and hopes to use her career in speech pathology to make these services and resources accessible to all.
Lucian Juarez is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. He is pursuing a B.S. in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and a B.A. in Linguistics with a Japanese certification. He joined the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab in 2023. He hopes to be able to integrate his linguistics major knowledge into his work at the lab and his future career as a speech language pathologist. He is interested in contributing to the academic research of underserved communities in speech language pathology.
Angela Guerrero is a fourth-year, Speech Language and Hearing Sciences major. She is an undergraduate research assistant in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab. She is interested in learning more about Multilingualism and the role that Speech Pathologists have. She is passionate with helping others who come from various backgrounds and using the skills learned in the lab to become a better clinician.
Ana Elisa Quiñonez
Ana Elisa is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico and was raised in New Braunfels, Texas. She is studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Science and minoring in Educational Psychology. She is interested in how culturally responsive practices can be better implemented in the field of speech-language pathology. Her research interests include bilingual communication disorders and the effects of bilingualism on neurodegenerative disorders.
Katie Cole
Katie is a senior studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences on the speech-language pathology track and obtaining a Certificate in Spanish for Medical Professions on the heritage Spanish speaker track. She is a student clinician at the Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research and an active member of the Lang Stuttering Institute Student Leadership Organization.
Adrian Martinez
Adrian Martinez is originally from Houston Texas. He is a third year student at UT Austin and is working towards a B.S. in Biochemistry with a minor in Health Communication. This is Adrian's first year as an undergraduate research assistant in the MADR Lab and excited to dive into research for multicultural communities.
Kyleigh McAlister
Born in Austin, Kyleigh McAlister is a current Senior at the University of Texas where she is pursuing a BS in Psychology with a minor in Language, Culture, and Communications. She aspires to conduct research investigating the pathological variations of proteins in Indigenous and African American individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease as well as the effects of multilingualism on memory recall skills. She hopes that her time working with the MADR Lab will help to strengthen her Spanish-speaking ability.
Leslie Brown
Leslie Brown is from Brownsville, Texas and is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Speech Language and Hearing Science and minoring in Business Administration. Apart from being in the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research team, she has also volunteered with the Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research. She is involved in the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association and the Lang Stuttering Institute Student Leadership Organization. Leslie serves as a mentor in the Valley Alliance of Mentors for Opportunities and Scholarships. My research interests include bilingual communication development as well as the impact of multilingual communication on neurodegenerative disorders. Her aspirations include becoming a bilingual speech pathologist and continuing to aid in research focusing on minority populations.
Kaprianna Lopez
Kaprianna Lopez was born and raised in Dallas, TX, but her parents are from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Kaprianna is a first-generation college student and a fourth-year Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences major. She is an undergraduate research assistant for the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab, as well as the Stuttering and Linguistic Processing Lab. In her spare time, she is part of the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association, Texas Darlins, and volunteers at Austin Speech Labs. Kaprianna has worked as an EMT and Caregiver but aspires to be a bilingual SLP with hopes to one day provide speech therapy services and resources to the Hispanic community.
Ana Pau
Ana Paula Gonzalez is from Brownsville, Texas, and is a second-year Moody student. She is studying Speech-language and Hearing Sciences and minoring in Health Communication. She is an undergraduate research assistant for the Multilingual Aphasia and Dementia Research lab and is an active member of the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association. She is interested in bilingual communication development and disorders.
Alumni
Previous Undergraduate Students
Gianna Cisneros
Reagan Price
Adrianna White
David Carillo-Moran
Ariana Figueroa
Amy Perez
Maylina Hudock
Renata Aldrete
Ximena Zarate
Previous Graduate Students
Paulina Guijarro
Liz Chinchilla
Alejandra Guzman Buitrago
Andrea Mota