I am an ASHA-certified speech-language pathologist and researcher with a PhD in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from New York University. My research sits at the intersection of speech science and neuroscience, where I use translational approaches relevant to both neurology and otolaryngology to investigate the behavioral, neural, and sensorimotor mechanisms of speech production in clinical populations. My work focuses on characterizing speech impairment and identifying predictors of treatment response, with the broader goal of informing effective interventions for individuals with dysarthria and related communication disorders.

My foundational research training was in the Biofeedback Intervention Technology for Speech (BITS) lab at NYU. In my NIH-funded dissertation (NIDCD Grant F31DC018197), I examined the role of sensorimotor skills in speech development and speech sound disorders in children, which helped shape my broader interest in the mechanisms of speech production and disorders. As complementary predoctoral training, I also investigated speech perception and perceptual learning in Dr. Susannah Levi’s Acoustic Phonetics and Perception Lab, which broadened my perspective on the links between speech production, perception, and treatment.

I completed my postdoctoral fellowship in the Flinker Lab in the Department of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where my work examined the neural basis of speech disruption and change in clinical populations. My postdoctoral research included projects on speech interruption during electrocortical stimulation and on changes in articulation and phonation associated with deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease, with an emphasis on characterizing patterns of change across speech tasks and identifying predictors of articulatory and phonatory outcomes.

Supported by an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship (NIDCD Grant F32DC021094), my mentored research in the Flinker Lab has focused on the cortical and subcortical underpinnings of typical and dysarthric speech. In this work, I used electrocorticography to study the neural mechanisms underlying responses to auditory feedback perturbations in patients with epilepsy, while also examining behavioral responses to the same task in individuals with dysarthria. This research has helped clarify differences in sensory-motor integration across typical and disordered speech. It has also strengthened my interest in using knowledge of speech motor control and sensory feedback to inform treatment approaches for dysarthria, including novel feedback-based tools to improve intelligibility.

Building on my earlier work examining speech changes associated with deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease, I have developed a more independent line of research focused on phonatory and articulatory outcomes in a different clinical population undergoing a new neurosurgical treatment. Supported by pilot funding from the ASHFoundation, my new longitudinal study investigates speech outcomes following high-intensity focused ultrasound in patients with essential tremor. The primary aims are to characterize trajectories of speech change over time and identify predictors of articulatory and phonatory outcomes, with the translational goal of clarifying how speech outcome measurement can inform treatment decision-making in clinical care. This work has broadened my collaborations across speech-language pathology, neurology, neurosurgery, and related clinical teams, and I hope to build on that foundation through continued in-house and multi-site partnerships, including cross-divisional work in neurology and related specialties, to develop new projects that bring speech outcome research into closer dialogue with clinical practice and advance my long-term goal of creating effective, technology-informed interventions for individuals with speech disorders.

A complete list of publications is available in MyBibliography, Google Scholar, and ORCiD.