News & Events
Study Abroad in Seoul, South Korea
The Speech & Hearing Sciences Department has an exciting upcoming opportunity for GWU and non GWU students to go abroad! The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students in a Speech-Language Pathology program or related program who are interested in international collaboration. Students will participate in a course on campus prior to the trip, as well as attend lectures and workshops in and around Seoul South Korea. Students will also have the opportunity to observe and collaborate directly with local speech pathologists and related professionals and their clients in a variety of settings. This is a great way to become a global citizen in the field of speech pathology.
For more details and to apply, visit http://studyabroad.gwu.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=3093
Open Houses for Prospective Graduate Students
- Friday, October 11, 2013
- Friday, December 6, 2013
- Friday, February 14, 2014
- Friday, March 14, 2014
You can learn more about opportunities to study and do research, tour our clinic and labs, and meet with students and faculty. Please send an email to K. Stone, Department Operations Supervisor, to register for one of our open houses and let us know about your particular interests. Details will be emailed closer to the date of your visit.
Congratulations are in order!!!
Congratulations to Mike O'Donnell! He was voted Professor of the Year by Student Athletes. He will be honored at the basketball game on February 20, 2013.
Congratulations to Adrienne Hancock, PhD for her recently received grant entitled "Evaluation and Improvement of Synthetic Vocal Fold Models for Normal and Ageing Voice" funded by the Institute of Biomedical Engineering Interdisciplinary Research Fund.
Dr. Hancock is the primary investigator of the grant and will be working with Drs. Michael Plesniak and Kelley Stewart of the Department of Mechanical and Aerodynamic Engineering to address the pressing need to develop synthetic vocal fold (VF) models that closely approximate the physiology, motion and dynamics, and therefore output, of human VFs. This work represents the first effort to quantify and evaluate parameters calculated from glottal velocity-volume waveforms generated with synthetic vocal fold models and also compare the to data from human VFs. It is critical that we examine the validity of these models to discover their strengths and minimize their weaknesses before they can lead to a greater understanding of the fluid dynamics, acoustics or flow-structure-acoustic interaction of the human larynx. This knowledge will also enable the development of enhanced, more physiologically-relevant models for future investigations of aging voice.
Congratulations to Olivia Cali. She was selected for ASHA's fifth annual PROmoting the next GENeration of Researchers (PROGENY) program. This resulted from her having a first-authored poster session at the ASHA convention and presenting work done as an undergraduate.
Congratulations to Shelley Brundage, PhD. She has been awarded a Visiting Research Fellowship to Curtin University, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology in Perth, Australia for 2013.
Congratulations to Michael O'Donnell. He was recently nominated for a 2012 Service Excellence Award by the George Washington University, which recognizes exceptional level of service to the University.
Congratulations to Adrienne Hancock, PhD for her recently received grant entitled "Glottal Physiology and Gender Perception of Transgender Speakers" funded by NIH (NOH R03).
The study will illuminate the capabilities of the human larynx and determine the relationship between speech measures (glottal movement, acoustics, aerodynamics, and prosody) and gender perception. Knowledge of vocal fold physiology is fundamental for developing clinical practice guidelines for a population habitually using a male vocal mechanism to produce a female-sounding voice. The production and perception results of this study will inform voice therapy clinical protocols for transgender speakers who face discrimination when their voice does not match their preferred gender presentation, which limits their ability to contribute to society and live healthy, safe lives.
Congratulations to Lynne Bernstein, PhD, Ed Auer, PhD and Maximillian Riesenhuber (Georgetown University) for their recently received grant evaluating "Visual Form-Based Spoken Word Processing" funded by NIH/NIDCD DC012634.
Individuals with hearing loss must rely to varying extent on visual speech perception (lip reading), but they vary greatly in their ability to derive speech information from visual input. This project seeks to understand the perceptual and neural basis for visual speech processing. The project is a novel collaboration between speech and visual neuroscientists. They will apply recently developed functional magnetic resonance imaging methodology for localizing visual speech activations in the cerebral cortex. They hypothesize that extensive speech processing is carried out by the visual system. Using outcomes of the project, new diagnostic and training methods for speech perception (both visual and multisensory) based on vision science and cognitive neuroscience will be developed.
Congratulations to James Mahshie, PhD for his recently received grant evaluating "Prosody and Voice Characteristics of Children with Cochlear Implants" funded by the Department of Education/NIDRR
Despite significant improvements in spoken language resulting from the use of cochlear implants in young children, certain prosodic and voice difficulties persist. This project employs a comprehensive set of measures for characterizing prosody and voice attributes of speech in younger and older children with cochlear implants. The program of research will establish those areas of prosody and voice production that are developing in this population, as well as those attributes that differ from normal and that persist and contribute to the perception of atypical speech. An additional aspect of this work will be to examine the relationships between prosodic abilities and other language performance measures. The project promises to provide both clinically useful knowledge and tools for assessing this aspect of speech production in children with cochlear implants.
Alumni News
Thank you to Alicia Dillingham for your donation to the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. Alicia Dillingham, MA '05 joined the Communication Sciences & Disorders Program, in the College of Communication, at Butler University as adjunct faculty in January 2013. When she is not teaching, she enjoys staying at home with her two sons, Wilson (3 years old) and Wyatt (1 year old). Since graduating from GWU, Alicia has served on the Indiana Speech-Language-Hearing Association Executive Council, the Down Syndrome Indiana Board of Directors and the Butler University CSD Alumni Advisory Board.
Congratulations to GWU Speech and Hearing Sciences Alumni Lindsay Lanciault (MA 2009)and Frida Matute (BA 2008). They founded New York’s Voice, a website to share, inform and educate individuals about topics in speech-language pathology, whether one is a student, parent, client, patient or therapist.
