About me

Hi! 👋 I am an Assistant Professor in the Communicative Disorders and Sciences department at the University at Buffalo. I completed¹ a combined MClSc/PhD in Communication Sciences & Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology) at Western University in London, Ontario. My research focuses on describing the acoustic-phonetic characteristics of dysarthria, a group of motor speech disorders. In particular, I am interested in how changes in the acoustic speech signal modulate speech intelligibility, that is, how understandable one’s speech is to a typical listener. Informed by my background in linguistics and speech acoustics, my research can broadly be categorized into three themes:

1. Understanding variable and adverse treatment effects on speech intelligibility
2. Acoustic distinctiveness and its role in speech intelligibliity
3. The use of technology for speech measurement and treatment

While much of my research has focused on hypokinetic dysarthria, a motor speech disorder associated with Parkinson’s disease, I am also interested in the differential speech processes in younger and older healthy adults, as well as individuals with other neurological speech disorders.

As a means to constantly striving to improve myself as a researcher, I also have a strong interest in tools for data analysis. Much of what I post here includes my musings on these tools (oftentimes this is the R programming language and environment) and tips or tricks I’ve tried to work through. See my posts and projects for more information.

Also feel free to ask me about:

• 🎓 Combined clinical research degrees
• ☕️ Brewing coffee
• 🏃 Trail running
• 🐶 My dog, Rocky

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