Director

Rosemary A. Lester-Smith, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is the Director of the UT Voice Lab and an Assistant Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She received a B.A. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of New Mexico, M.A. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from Indiana University, M.S. in Clinical Investigation from Northwestern University, and Ph.D. in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Neuroscience from the University of Arizona. She completed postdoctoral training at Mayo Clinic, Boston University, Northwestern University, and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). She is a certified speech-language pathologist and has worked in a variety of clinical settings, primarily evaluating and treating adults with voice and swallowing disorders.
Doctoral Research Associates

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.

Beiming Cao is a doctoral student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University. His research focuses on speech signal processing with a special interest in silent speech recognition, dysarthric speech recognition, and articulation-to-speech synthesis.
Master's Research Assistants

Lizzy Eidson is a Master's student in speech-language pathology in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. She received a Bachelor’s in Music in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas. Her clinical and research area of interest is voice disorders.
Research Collaborators
Charles R. Larson, Ph.D.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University
David G. Lott, M.D.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Mayo Clinic
Elan Louis, M.D.
Department of Neurology, UT Southwestern Medical Center
John Nix, M.M.
Department of Music, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Brad H. Story, Ph.D.
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Arizona
Edison Thomaz, Ph.D.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Mariana Georgeta Varga, M.D.
Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Jun Wang, Ph.D.
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences; Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School; The University of Texas at Austin
Chad Whited, M.D.
Austin Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic
Darlene Wiley, M.M.
Butler School of Music, The University of Texas at Austin
Graduate Alumni

Fan-Yin Cheng, PhD SLHS
Summer 2022

Ashley Rothwell, MS SLHS
Spring 2022 - Summer 2022
Natalie Cummings, DMA
Fall 2019 - Spring 2022

Faria Kazi, MS SLHS
Summer 2021 - Fall 2021

Anna Hammer, MS SLHS
Summer 2021

Greg Jebaily, MS SLHS
Fall 2019 - Summer 2020

Kylie Dunne, MS SLHS
Spring 2019 - Summer 2020
Undergraduate Alumni

Melanie Looper, BA SLHS
Spring 2019 - Summer 2020