Current PhD Students
2023-2024 Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences Doctoral Student Awards
Ryan Millager, Young Investigator Award
- This award is given to the doctoral student who has shown great promise for a future career in the field, as demonstrated by their performance in the laboratory and in classes.
Emily Thompson, Publication Award
- This award is given to the doctoral student with the best research article within the past year.
Emily’s paper “A comparison of listening skills of autistic and non-autistic youth while using and not using remote microphone systems” was published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Current PhD Students
Recent Graduates
Dr. Sharice Clough graduated in 2023 and is a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Dr. Keysha Martinez-Torres graduated in 2023 and is a postdoctoral fellow at VUMC.
Dr. Sarah Diehl is an assistant professor at University of Northern Iowa.
Dr. Monica Fokerts is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Dillon Pruett is a postdoctoral fellow at VUMC.
Dr. Sarah Schneck is a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
Dr. Emily Morrow graduated in March 2022 and will continue her research in long-term post-TBI as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at VUMC.
Dr. Jordan Racca graduated in February 2022 and is now working as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Vanderbilt Institute of Imaging Science.
Dr. Ian Morton graduated in August 2021 and is joining the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater as an Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders department.
Dr. Deborah Levy received her Ph.D. in July 2021, she is continuing her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Francisco in the department of Neurosurgery under the supervision of Dr. Eddie Chang.
Dr. Mary Alice Keller graduated in June 2021 and is now working with HCA Healthcare on their Journal of Medicine as a Research Publications Coordinator.
Dr. Jourdan Holder graduated in December 2020 and is starting as Assistant Professor in Hearing and Speech Sciences and Otolaryngology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Dr. Jacob Feldman has joined Dr. Woynaroski’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Dr. Carlos Benitez-Barrera will be continuing his career as a postdoctoral fellow at Callier Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas – Dallas.
Dr. Timothy Davis is currently working for the Nashville Veterans Affairs in their Cochlear Implant program.
Dr. Kristen D’Onofrio will continue working to improve the music listening experience for patients with hearing loss through research and clinical practice.
Dr. Alison Hessling is now an Assistant Professor in Communication Sciences & Disorders at Baylor University.
Dr. Emily Kimball has accepted the position of Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center under the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences.
Dr. Shih-Yuan Liang has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship position at the Research Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
Dr. Laurel Teller will be joining Eastern Illinois University as an Assistant Professor.
Dr. Pumpki Su has accepted a postdoctoral research position in the Bilingual Lab under the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Delaware.