I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University studying under the mentorship of Dr. Melissa Duff in the Communicaiton and Memory Lab (https://www.dufflab.org). My research interests combine the cognitive neuroscience of learning and memory with the study of multimodal language in populations with neurogenic communication disorders, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), aphasia, amnesia, and Alzheimer’s disease. I am a clinician-scientist and certified speech-language pathologist. Using a combination of behavioral, psycholinguistic, and neuropsychological methods, I hope to better understand the mechanisms underlying communication disorders and develop clinically translatable approaches to rehabilitating brain injury. My research is supported by an NIH-funded NIDCD F31 grant that examines the role of gesture in language processing and word learning in adults with traumatic brain injury.

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I earned my Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Iowa. There, I worked as a research assistant in the Aphasia and Aging laboratory and developed a research interest in improving fluency assessment in aphasia. My clinical experiences include acute and outpatient care at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (Iowa City, IA), inpatient rehabilitation at Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital (Jacksonville, FL), and long-term care (Millennium Therapy, Burlington, IA).

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Outside of work, my interests include reading, hiking, drawing, cooking, and introverting with my cat, Hank.