Diversity Lecture Series
OCTOBER 23, 2024 12-1 PM MCE 8318
2024 Rising Star Awardee Presentation
Breaking barriers, building language: Leveraging family strengths to promote shared book reading in vulnerable communities
Miguel Garcia-Salas, MS, is a doctoral candidate in the School of Communication Science and Disorders at Florida State University. He is also a Florida Interdisciplinary Research Fellow in Education Sciences through the Florida Center for Reading Research. His research focuses on promoting language development in children with or at risk for language disorders in vulnerable communities through the collaborative development of family-centered resources.
Abstract of Mr. Garcia-Salas’s presentation: Current shared book reading (SBR) interventions often fall short in supporting families, particularly those from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, in fostering their children’s language and early literacy development. Without accessible and supportive family-centered approaches, children from underrepresented and vulnerable communities may miss out on important benefits of SBR, including the promotion of language skills that are critical for future reading and academic success. Thus, this presentation advocates for a strengths-based approach to intervention design, which recognizes and builds upon the unique practices and values of families.
Through three research studies conducted in collaboration with migratory families, this presentation will demonstrate how family strengths, such as sibling-led reading and cultural values, can be harnessed to create more effective and accessible family resources. These studies illustrate the potential of leveraging families’ existing knowledge and practices to promote language development and make early literacy resources more accessible. The findings will offer insights into how clinicians, educators, and researchers can better support children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds by developing interventions and resources that are responsive to their specific contexts, strengths, and needs, ultimately fostering improved language development and access to clinical care.
OCTOBER 30, 2024 12-1 PM MCE 8318
2024 Special Guest Lecture in Diversity
Language in autism in the transition to adulthood: Integrating social and medical models of disability
Teresa Girolamo is an Assistant Professor in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at San Diego State University. Prior to joining SDSU, she received her PhD at Child Language and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Connecticut, each supported by T32 traineeships. Her research interests involve language development and disorders, considering phenotypic variability in autism and other neurodivergent populations. Her work has been supported by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation and is currently supported by the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute and NIDCD. Her current projects examine environmental influences on the transition to adulthood in racially and ethnically minoritized autistic youth varying widely in language and communication profiles and effective assessment for this population.
Abstract of Dr. Girolamo’s presentation: Although language in autism is heterogeneous and strongly predicts long-term outcomes, little is known about the language skills of transition-aged autistic youth and adults. Research in this area has expanded significantly over the past 10 years. Yet studies tend to rely on broad group comparisons and to only attribute adult outcomes to individual differences, such as language skills, rather than examining heterogeneity in the experiences and skills of autistic individuals. In this talk, I will discuss current studies in the Brain, Environment, and Language Lab through which we are attempting to address some of these limitations. These projects represent community-partnered efforts to examine language in the transition to adulthood and to move toward research models that address both environmental influences and individual differences in language to characterize developmental trajectories.
To request more information, please email dhssgradstudies@vanderbilt.edu
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OCTOBER 18, 2023 12-1 PM MCE 8323
2023 Rising Star Awardee Presentation
Watch your temper(ament)! Incorporating models of temperament while examining outcomes in children and adults who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
Kristina Bowdrie, AuD, is a graduate student at The Ohio State University. She recently graduated with her Doctor of Audiology degree in May of 2023 and is currently working towards completing her PhD. She works as an audiologist at The VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, where she is also completing a fellowship on quality improvement in healthcare. Her interests include examining important clinic outcomes in vulnerable patient populations and assessing the implementation and effectiveness of evidence-based interventions in audiology.
OCTOBER 23, 2023 12-1 PM MCE 8323
2023 Special Guest Lecture in Diversity
Future directions in the assessment of stress and adversity
Dr. Kathryn Humphreys is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. She is a clinical psychologist by training and has expertise in infant and early childhood mental health and developmental neuroscience. Her research program consists of both basic and applied work, with more than 150 publications and book chapters on development, adversity, caregiving, and psychopathology. Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and private foundations. Dr. Humphreys is the recipient of several early career awards, including the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science. She recently was recognized for her work by Vanderbilt’s Chancellor’s Award for Research.
In her presentation, Dr. Humphreys will review approaches to conceptualizing and characterizing early adversity, including child abuse and neglect. She will also discuss evidence for the role of interventions to prevent maltreatment and mitigate the impact of early adversity on long-term outcomes.
To request more information, please email dhssgradstudies@vanderbilt.edu
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OCTOBER 19, 2022 12-1 PM MCE 8318
2022 Rising Star Awardee Presentation
Answering Epidemiological Questions in Voice Research: Efforts Toward Health Equity
Mariah Morton, MS, Third Year PhD Candidate, Auburn University
Mariah Morton is a speech-language pathologist, specializing in the assessment and treatment of voice and upper airway disorders, and she currently works part time at the UAB Voice Center. Her research interests include the intersection between exercise physiology and vocal function as well as healthcare disparities for racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse people as well as rural-living individuals in need for SLP-specific voice care. Ms. Morton’s research has been published in The Laryngoscope.
OCTOBER 26, 2022 12-1 PM MCE 8318
2022 Special Guest Lecture in Diversity
What is the Intersection between Cognitive and Communication Disorders and the School-to-Confinement Pipeline?
Shameka Stanford, PhD, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Howard University
Dr. Stanford is the first and only Juvenile Forensic Speech-Language Pathologist and a special education advocate trained by the Wrightslaw Training Center. Dr. Stanford’s clinical and scholarly work specializes in Juvenile Forensics, Law Enforcement Interaction with youth with CD, child language disorders and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Her primary research focuses on the Confluence and Impact of cognitive and communication disorders on the school-to-confinement pipeline, status offenses, involvement with the criminal justice system, law enforcement interaction, and criminal recidivism in youth placed at-risk for delinquency and crime (especially Black and Brown youth from under-resourced areas). Dr. Stanford is also a clinically certified and licensed speech-language pathologist and is licensed to practice in Maryland, Washington, D.C, and multiple other states. Through her work, Dr. Stanford has created cutting edge social justice and juvenile justice specialty courses for graduate CSD students, nationally known training programs for law enforcement and legal counsel, and national and international CE workshops and training for licensed SLP clinicians, students, and families of children with special needs. Dr. Stanford writes frequently on this topic and has been published in a number of ASHA journals as well as The Journal of Gender, Social Policy, and Law.
Click here to print a copy of the 2022 October Diversity Series flyer.
To request more information, please email dhssgradstudies@vanderbilt.edu
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OCTOBER 6, 2021 | 12-1 PM CT VIA ZOOM
Summer Book Club Discussion on Health Disparities The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World Michael Marmot, author
OCTOBER 20, 2021 | 12-1 PM CT VIA ZOOM
Inaugural Rising Star Awardee Presentation
How Does Input Shape Language and Cognition in Bilingual and Monolingual Children?
Kimberly Crespo, MS, Predoctoral Fellow, and Ph.D. Candidate University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kimberly Crespo is an F31 Predoctoral Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate in Rita Kaushanskaya’s Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her B.A. in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences from Kean University in Union, New Jersey.
Rising Star Honorable Mention Awardees Jasenia Hartman and Brandon Merritt will join us for the presentation.
OCTOBER 27, 2021 | 12-1 PM CT VIA ZOOM
2021 Dan Ashmead Lecture
Health Disparities and Health Equity in Speech-Language Pathology: What are We Missing?
Charles Ellis Jr., Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences at the University of Florida
Dr. Ellis is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist who received his Bachelor of Science and Master’s degree from The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, and Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Dr. Ellis’ academic concentration focuses on adult neurogenic disorders and he teaches courses related to aphasia and cognitive disorders. His research is designed to understand outcomes associated with adult neurologically-based disorders of communication and factors that contribute to the lack of equity in service provision and outcome disparities that exist among African Americans and other underrepresented minority groups.
Dr. Ellis has authored or co-authored over 130 peer-reviewed journals articles, five book chapters and has over 150 presentations to his credit related to neurological disorders and health disparities, and minority health issues. Dr. Ellis is a former Language Editor for the Journal of Speech-Language-Hearing Research 2017-2018. Dr. Ellis was awarded the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Certificate of Recognition for Special Contribution in Multicultural Affairs in 2011. In 2014, he was awarded a Fellowship of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
Click here to print a copy of the 2021 October Diversity Series flyer.
To request more information, please email dhssgradstudies@vanderbilt.edu