Sydney Flowers | Department of Speech and Hearing Science | College of Applied Health Sciences

SHS researchers bridge research and real life

May 20, 2025 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

The work at the College of Applied Health Sciences doesn’t stay in the lab—it transforms lives. Faculty such as Meaghan McKenna and Laura Mattie exemplify the college’s commitment to bridging research with community impact. Whether developing interventions for literacy in schools or building relationships with families of children with disabilities, they show how academic insights can create tangible benefits.

Mattie joined the faculty in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in 2015. Now an associate professor, she has spent the past nine years working on research with her colleagues in SHS as the principal investigator in the Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab. She said her time spent at the department has led to close relationships, both personal and professional.

“The interdisciplinary nature of the department, the university and the college really has helped me to build more collaborations, and I think that’s one of the key things to being successful in my field,” Mattie said. “Some of my collaborators are my closest friends.”

Mattie’s fall semester class, titled Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across Communication Contexts, covers the development of social and communication skills in children with various neurodevelopmental disorders that her research is focused on as well. Her current research, which primarily concerns children with fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome involves longitudinal studies that require a level of personal connection with families of children partaking in her studies.

For Mattie, being a new mom to two young girls has offered a fresh perspective on her research.

“As we’re getting closer to the end of the project and thinking of what to do next, the mom in me led to the thought, ‘How do we get information to moms and clinicians quicker?”’

Mattie said building relationships with families really allowed researchers to value their thoughts and experiences.

“I want to partner with families and clinicians—and we found this evidence that we think is helpful—but how can we package the information so they can use it every day; how can we really make it accessible for them, and instead of getting it to them in 10-15 years (the current research-to-practice gap), get it back to them quicker?”

McKenna isn’t just one of the most recent additions to the SHS as an assistant professor. She also has years of experience as a speech-language pathologist and a passion for connecting with districts, schools and educational professionals about solving problems of practice corresponding to literacy and multi-tiered systems of support.

“Forming partnerships and relationships is the most important thing I do,” she said.

Working in SHS is a position that is far from stationary: McKenna’s work pulls her across not only campus, but into surrounding cities and school districts where she aims to narrow the gap between research and practice. She currently partners with her colleague Amber Ray in the Department of Special Education and Holy Cross School in Champaign on writing intervention research.

McKenna has also joined three other schools and districts who connected with her about their mutual interest in solving problems of practice corresponding to writing. In Danville, she is collaborating with the curriculum department and classroom teachers as K-2 instructional guides are created that highlight daily writing activities aligned with the core curriculum and evidence-based practices. In Blue Ridge, Illinois, professional development sessions that address writing instructional priorities identified by classroom teachers are held monthly. In Chicago, a Pre-K-8 school formed an instructional leadership team committed to vertical alignment of how the writing process (cycle) is taught and student writing is evaluated.

“I think it’s important for us to bridge what we’re doing in research and think about how it translates into practice,” she said. “I don’t think it’s productive to be in a research lab all day or writing papers if it doesn’t have any impact on the community or individuals who are going to be applying the findings. The opportunity to co-learn with schools and districts across the state (who are) committed to prioritizing writing has been the highlight of my second year in Illinois.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

Tags: Laura Mattie, Meaghan McKenna, Research, SHS, SHS Newsletter Spring 2025

Fogerty-led research team tackles hearing health disparities with innovative at-home assessment

May 20, 2025 | Adelyn Mui

Research for a gap in treatment for hearing in noisy environments has been active for decades

*An Illinois research team will work to implement an at-home assessment for hearing, including a smartphone app (Stock image)*

Approximately 37.5 million adults in the United States experience hearing loss. A team from the University of Illinois is working to alleviate barriers in accessibility and affordability to hearing health care.

Dan Fogerty, an associate professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in the College of Applied Health Sciences, recently received two grants to support his project, titled “Empowering Illinois Communities for Better Hearing Health.” The project is focused on improving access to hearing screening through an at-home assessment and focusing on a primary hearing complaint: difficult hearing in noisy environments.

One grant is from the Chancellor’s Call to Action Research Program. This program aims to empower the university community to address the greatest challenges facing our society and seek new solutions. The second grant, from Campus Research Board, supports the work done to create the self-administered hearing assessment. Total funding from the grants amounts to just under $100,000.

“Current hearing screening methods, which consist of detecting simple tones in quiet, often fail to address real-world challenges,” Fogerty said. “Hearing screening can be improved by more accurately assessing the listening difficulties that people complain about and may be more motivated to address.”

Research for this gap in treatment for hearing in noisy environments has been active for decades, Fogerty said.

“It involves both technology-focused solutions, such as advanced hardware and signal processing to reduce noise and enhance speech, as well as aural rehabilitative strategies involving education and training,” Fogerty said. “The focus of this project is to help identify the specific challenges that an individual might have when listening in noisy environments in order to customize the collection of strategies that might be most useful for them.”

A team consisting of researchers from the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Clinic, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation will develop and implement an at-home assessment, including a smartphone app. Over the course of the project, they will also examine implementation in the lab, the audiology clinic and in communities across the state.

Fogerty said this combined interdisciplinary approach will help them tackle accessibility and affordability issues.

Hearing screening can be improved by more accurately assessing the listening difficulties that people complain about and may be more motivated to address.

Dan Fogerty

Associate Professor

“Our partnership with the audiology clinic ensures the translation of this research into clinical practice. ACES brings expertise in community engagement, specifically through the Illinois Extension offices which will facilitate public education and access,” Fogerty said. “OVCRI contributes research infrastructure and computational expertise through NCSA.”

NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, will support the development of a hearing app that will expand access to the innovative hearing assessment. The high prevalence of smartphones allows online and app-based testing to be possible.

Fogerty said addressing hearing disparities is a priority because untreated hearing loss has widespread medical, social and economic consequences. Adults in underserved communities can be far away from hearing centers and often face shortages in hearing services with healthcare providers. Economic barriers, such as travel costs or time away from work, may also interfere with affordability.

“Mobile self-administered hearing assessments, downloadable to a smartphone, will literally put personalized hearing health information at our fingertips,” Fogerty said.

At-home hearing assessments are innovative because they enable advanced hearing care remotely, removing barriers and costs associated with in-person clinic visits.

“These tests can be conducted anywhere at any time,” Fogerty said. “This also increases the likelihood of patient follow-up and compliance with testing recommendations due to the convenience and flexibility of the assessment.”

Hearing aid use has been reported as low as 8.6% among adults with some hearing handicap. Fogerty said there are a variety of reasons for this statistic.

“Gaps in insurance coverage and perceived social stigma may contribute,” Fogerty said. “Underestimating hearing difficulties, limited awareness of potential treatment options, or difficulty accessing services are other common reasons. Our self-assessment is designed to address some of these factors.”

Even with some over-the-counter hearing aid options, OTCs are still relatively new and many barriers remain.

“Limited awareness of hearing difficulty or treatment, stigma, out-of-pocket costs [are still factors],” Fogerty said. “OTCs are also only intended for use by adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss without other medical conditions.”

The funding for this project will start in July and last one year, with the home-based assessments planned to start in early 2026. Fogerty anticipates recruiting 200 adults across all study phases, which will include testing in the laboratory, audiology clinic and community.

Tags: Dan Fogerty, SHS, SHS Newsletter Spring 2025

The science of sound: Understanding how the brain helps us hear in noise

May 20, 2025 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

A new study aims to deepen our understanding of how the brain influences our ability to distinguish speech amid background noise

*Ian Mertes has been interested in how the brain influences the inner ear since he was a graduate student. (Photo provided)*

For millions of people worldwide, hearing loss is not simply a matter of volume but clarity—especially in noisy environments. Struggling to distinguish a single voice in a crowded restaurant, a busy office or even a family gathering is a common report among those with hearing difficulties. Researchers at the forefront of auditory science are investigating an essential but often overlooked aspect of hearing: the brain’s role in processing sound.

A study led by Department of Speech and Hearing Science Associate Professor Ian Mertes, titled “Olivocochlear Efferent Function: Associations with Hearing in Noise and Listening Effort,” aims to deepen our understanding of how the brain influences our ability to distinguish speech amid background noise. The project, supported by a three-year, $570,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, will examine the neurological mechanisms that contribute to hearing in noise and the effort required to listen under challenging conditions.

Mertes has been interested in how the brain influences the inner ear since he was a graduate student.

Hearing is often thought of as a passive process: sound waves enter the ear, are converted into neural signals, and are sent to the brain for interpretation. However, the reality is far more complex. The auditory system has a top-down control mechanism that influences how the ear processes incoming sounds. This system, known as the medial olivocochlear efferent system, acts as a neural feedback loop that modulates auditory input.

But Mertes said there are still unanswered questions about how this system contributes to listening in everyday life. Efferent pathways originate in the brainstem and extend to the cochlea, the inner ear’s sensory organ responsible for converting sound waves into electrical signals. These pathways play a crucial role in adjusting how we hear in noisy environments. By selectively dampening background noise and enhancing speech signals, the medial olivocochlear system may improve our ability to focus on important sounds while ignoring irrelevant ones.

“My study also examines if the medial olivocochlear reflex is involved in listening effort,” he said. “Even if the medial olivocochlear reflex does not improve someone’s performance on a speech-in-noise task, it may reduce the mental resources needed to listen in background noise.”

Investigating Speech-in-Noise Recognition

The study aims to explore how variations in this top-down control contribute to an individual’s ability to understand speech in noisy settings. Researchers will work with adults who report varying levels of difficulty in hearing amid background noise. By measuring their auditory responses under controlled conditions, the team hopes to uncover patterns that link efferent function to speech recognition abilities. Mertes said that in addition to people with hearing loss, it’s estimated that up to 44 million U.S. adults have clinically normal hearing and yet report that they have difficulty hearing in noisy situations.

“We are still trying to understand the underlying reasons for these difficulties,” he said.

Beyond understanding speech in noise, the study will also explore the cognitive effort required to listen in difficult auditory environments

Participants will undergo a series of tests assessing their ability to discern speech against different levels of background noise. These assessments will be paired with physiological measurements of inner ear and auditory brainstem activity, allowing the researchers to determine how the brain’s feedback mechanisms influence perception. By comparing individuals with and without self-reported hearing difficulties, the research team aims to identify specific deficits in the olivocochlear system that may contribute to these challenges.

“We hypothesize that medial olivocochlear reflex function will be reduced in the group that reports having significant difficulties because they have less noise reduction happening at the level of their inner ear,” Mertes said.

Measuring Listening Effort

Beyond understanding speech in noise, the study will also explore the cognitive effort required to listen in difficult auditory environments. Listening effort is a critical but often subjective aspect of hearing. Even if two individuals achieve similar results on a hearing test, one may expend significantly more mental energy to achieve the same level of comprehension.

Implications for Future Research and Interventions

The findings from this study could have significant implications for hearing health care. Currently, hearing aids and assistive devices primarily amplify sound, but they do not always enhance speech clarity in noisy environments. By better understanding the brain’s role in modulating auditory input, researchers may pave the way for new treatments or hearing aid technologies that target neural mechanisms rather than just the mechanical aspects of hearing loss.

For example, future hearing aids might be designed to simulate the brain’s natural medial olivocochlear efferent control system, selectively amplifying relevant sounds while suppressing background noise more effectively. Additionally, clinicians could use diagnostic tests based on medial olivocochlear efferent function to personalize treatment strategies, ensuring that interventions are tailored to an individual’s specific auditory processing profile.

A Step Toward Better Hearing Solutions

This study represents an important step in bridging the gap between neuroscience and audiology. By shedding light on the intricate relationship between the brain and the ear, researchers hope to improve outcomes for individuals struggling with speech-in-noise recognition.

“I’m currently focused on understanding the physiology that is involved in hearing in background noise,” Mertes said. “I’m hopeful that my work will help contribute to improved diagnosis and treatment of listening difficulties, especially for people with clinically normal hearing.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

Tags: Ian Mertes, SHS, SHS Newsletter Spring 2025

New SHS faculty member advancing communication for individuals with disabilities

May 20, 2025 | Adelyn Mui

AAC refers to a range of methods that people use to communicate, other than spoken language

*Savanna Brittlebank first became interested in AAC after working with children who had trouble communicating (Photo provided)*

By ADELYN MUI

Savanna Brittlebank has dedicated her academic career to improving communication for individuals with complex needs. As a new faculty member in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in the College of Applied Health Sciences, she brings knowledge and experience to the field of augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC.

AAC refers to a range of methods that people use to communicate, other than spoken language. It includes gestures, symbols, pictures, writing or use of electronic devices to express thoughts, needs and wants.

Brittlebank first became interested in AAC after working with children who had trouble communicating. She initially majored in psychology but worked extensively with individuals with disabilities. One of the reasons she decided to come to the University of Illinois is that she values the robust resources that the university has.

“There’s a lot of opportunity as well for expansion of my research because there is just a strength across different disciplines of the research that’s going on,” Brittlebank said. “The university really values that and has a lot of support to kind of push that growth as well, which drew me here. I keep learning more and more.”

Brittlebank recalled a time when she worked with a 3-year-old girl who was hearing-impaired and blind. The child also had an intellectual and developmental disability and no speech.

“She was still developing language, and I didn’t know what to do,” Brittlebank said. “I didn’t know how to best support her communication. Whenever I spoke to my supervisors and when I looked in the research, there really wasn’t anything. I realized I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know how to help this population. I realized that’s more where my passion was, and so I went back and studied further, and I’ve focused on research on that ever since.”

Brittlebank grew up in Zimbabwe and completed her BSc Hons (comparable to a U.S. bachelor’s degree) at University of York in England before coming to the United States to complete her M.S. at Pennsylvania State University. After her M.S., she worked clinically in Wisconsin as a speech-language pathologist, then returned to Penn State for her Ph.D. From there, she made her way to Illinois as an assistant professor in SHS.

“University of Illinois is one of the most disability-friendly campuses,” Brittlebank said. “There’s so many different resources available for individuals with disabilities, and there’s so much accessibility, more so than I’ve seen in a lot of other places. That was really encouraging considering I often work with people with disabilities who have limited speech.”

Since joining the university in fall 2024, Brittlebank has been in the process of getting new projects up and running and finishing old ones. She said one of her goals is to expand the accessibility of these interventions in lower-resource communities. In late April, Brittlebank received an award from the Campus Research Board for her project titled “Communication Partner Training to Support Language Outcomes in Children with Significant Disabilities.” This intervention research will investigate the effectiveness of training communication partners (e.g., paraprofessionals, direct support staff) of young children with significant challenges in both speech and motor abilities (i.e., multiple disabilities) in an evidence-based strategy to enhance child language outcomes.

In addition to access for lower-resource communities, Brittlebank also said that AAC is still moving forward in terms of representation for different cultures and different languages.

“AAC can be particularly challenging. I think one of the biggest barriers is access to technology,” Brittlebank said. “We can definitely support communication with photographs or with writing, but a lot of what’s out there as well is access to these computer- or tablet-like systems where you can access the internet. Families might not have it readily in the home as it’s a more costly system.”

AAC can be particularly challenging. I think one of the biggest barriers is access to technology.

Savanna Brittlebank

Assistant Professor

Brittlebank has worked on projects such as Transition to Literacy or T2L, a software that provides dynamic speech and text output upon selecting a graphic symbol. She said that traditional systems can be limiting—if every single word is not programmed, an individual cannot say everything that they want. However, the T2L feature helps support literacy by teaching individuals.

“It’s the idea that it’s an additional support to direct literacy instruction, but it’s a great way that it can be embedded and someone can get exposure to literacy learning throughout the day,” Brittlebank said.

Brittlebank said literacy is powerful: if an individual has the alphabet, they can say anything they want.

“Literacy, in this day and age as well—it really enables social communication and building friendships. If someone has trouble with speech, and then they have trouble with communication, that has a series of impacts from not being able to engage in education or limiting employment opportunities and limiting the ability to make friendships,” Brittlebank said. “It’s really important to make sure that individuals have access to language and communication and have appropriate access to language and communication.”

Tags: College of Applied Health Sciences, Savanna Brittlebank, SHS Newsletter Spring 2025

AHS students present diverse projects for Undergrad Research Week

May 01, 2024 | Ethan Simmons

Students, faculty and staff got a taste of the findings from AHS’ budding student researchers during the AHS Undergraduate Research Expo

*Kinesiology juniors Elizabeth Martinez, center, and Aubrey Cervantes, left, present their research at the AHS Undergrad Research Expo (Photo by Ethan Simmons)*

For a freshman at the College of Applied Health Sciences, Saiesha Bollapragada’s research portfolio is impressive.

At last week’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, the I-Health major got to present the results from her first research project, “Public Health Preparedness Among UIUC Students During Extreme Heat Conditions,” where she examined students’ awareness and handling of severe heat in the spring semester.

She completed her study with a push from Students Pursuing Applications, Research and Knowledge, or SPARK, an AHS program that jump-starts incoming undergraduate students research experiences by pairing them with professors in the college. Bollapragada was placed with Recreation, Sport, and Tourism Associate Professor Mariela Fernandez, whose experience with urban environmental injustices fit her research topic perfectly.

“Professor Fernandez motivated me to start this project on my own,” Bollapragada said. “There’s a lot more reading involved than I thought there was, it was a lot of work preparing for the symposium, but if it’s something you’re interested in it’s a fun process.”

Students, faculty and staff got a taste of the findings from AHS’ budding student researchers during the AHS Undergraduate Research Expo at Huff Hall on Wednesday, April 24, where a roster of undergraduates gave poster presentations on a diverse range of research topics.

Many students spearheaded their own research projects with significant support and guidance from faculty and graduate students. Others, like a group of Speech and Hearing Science students from the Intellectual DisAbilities Communication Lab led by Associate Professor Marie Moore Channell, provided updates on long-range research projects they’ve assisted with on campus.

Three SHS seniors, Emma Mueller, Abigail Keasler and Liz Gremer, presented initial findings from their glimpse into the Speech Accessibility Project, an ongoing research endeavor looking to make voice recognition software—such as Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa—more accessible for people with different speech patterns.

Each of the students has helped recruit participants with Down syndrome or aided vocal transcriptions from the samples they’ve collected. Under the leadership of Channell, the lab hopes to collect 240,000 voice samples from 400 participants.

“Our poster looked into the recruiting process with that population and took a look at patterns of articulation differences exhibited by individuals with Down syndrome,” said Mueller, who transcribed vocal samples for the project.

All three of the students met in Channell’s lab, and immediately found research responsibilities once the Down syndrome portion of the project came under Channell’s purview.

“It’s been very rewarding, very interesting and very impactful,” Keasler said. “A lot of families in meetings or over the phone say, ‘Siri doesn’t really understand what we’re trying to say,’ so this is very important and I can’t wait to see the results of it.”

Coming to a project affiliated with SHS with “so much publicity and so much money coming in is encouraging,” said Gremer, who has helped recruit participants and set up their first meetings for collecting voice samples.

AHS student programs, such as the first-generation focused Mannie L. Jackson Illinois Academic Enrichment and Leadership Program (I-LEAP), were well represented in the research symposium. I-LEAP juniors Elizabeth Martinez and Aubrey Cervantes, both studying kinesiology, brought results from their research collaboration on high-intensity interval training.

Working within KCH Professor Steve Petruzzello’s Exercise Psychophysiology Lab, the pair analyzed 25 participants’ emotional responses to high-intensity exercise, compared with their scores and symptoms of several mental health qualities: namely anxiety, depression and neuroticism.

“We were looking at exercise adherence—how can we get more people to get more active—and we were really interested in HIIT exercise, so we put it all together in one research project,” Cervantes said.

What they found: Participants with more symptoms of depression reported more negative affect responses during the HIIT exercise, while anxiety and neuroticism didn’t show significant predictive power, they said.

“This is my first hands-on [study] that I can call my own and Aubrey’s,” said Martinez, who’s applying to physical therapy schools. “My favorite part is meeting with the participants. It’s so fun getting to know everyone, even if there’s a lot more hours behind the desk just plugging and chugging data.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.

Tags: Marie Moore Channell, Students, Undergraduate Research Symposium

Three SHS doctoral students have plans to make an impact on their fields

May 21, 2024 | Anna Flanagan

By ANNA FLANAGAN

Under the mentorship of world-renowned scholars, doctoral students make significant contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in speech and hearing science through their dissertation research, as they prepare to assume leadership roles in clinical, industrial and academic settings.

Below, three of our outstanding SHS doctoral students discuss their research, and the impact they hope to have on the field.

Conflict monitoring

Mentored by Department of Speech and Hearing Science Professor Raksha Mudar in the Aging and Neurocognition Lab, Lizzy Lydon is focusing her doctoral research on communication abilities in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Her specific focus is on the cognitive construct called conflict monitoring, which helps individuals detect and resolve competing information in the environment. Lydon uses electroencephalography to examine alterations in brain waves when people with MCI perform different conflict monitoring tasks.

Before beginning her Ph.D. studies, Lydon worked as a speech-language pathologist with patients with MCI, many of whom reported communication challenges. “I often found it difficult to determine what type of treatment was the best choice for these individuals,” she said. “After looking through research, I realized there was a lack of evidence-based treatments for communication challenges in populations that experience mild changes to their cognition and language.”

Previous research had focused on understanding memory changes in adults with MCI. An emerging body of literature suggests that other cognitive functions such as conflict monitoring are affected. In using EEG in her research, Lydon may be able to identify neurophysiological markers that can be used for early diagnosis of MCI Research has shown that people with MCI are at a significantly greater risk of developing dementia than typically aging peers, Lydon noted, so it’s important not only to identify MCI earlier but also to better characterize the changes they experience.

“This can help to inform the development of interventions that have the potential to slow the progression to dementia and allow people to maintain independence and quality of life as long as possible,” she said.

In the fall, Lydon will join the faculty of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Miami University in Ohio as an assistant professor. She plans to continue to investigate how MCI affects different aspects of communication, as well as how these changes impact the ability to engage socially with others. “I am looking forward to this next adventure,” Lydon said, “and I’m so thankful for all the training I received here at Illinois.”

Listening effort

Silvia Murgia also plans to pursue an academic position after completing her degree this summer. For her dissertation, she is evaluating the impact of background noise and dysphonia, a voice disorder, on the mental energy needed to listen, or listening effort, of children performing a speech comprehension task. She is taking a comprehensive approach to her study, using subjective and objective measures of listening effort, including EEG analysis, as well as assessments of cognitive function to explain individual differences.

Murgia is mentored by SHS Associate Professor Pasquale Bottalico in the Speech Accommodation to Acoustics Lab. Understanding listening effort in children is crucial, Murgia said, as they spend a significant amount of time in school learning through communication activities. It is essential to minimize the amount of mental energy children use to listen in order to optimize the resources available for cognitive tasks such as memorization, comprehension and evaluation. Studies show that children’s cognition is affected by the speaker’s voice quality, the presence of background noise and the complexity of the listening task. Research also suggests that individual differences in executive function may be associated with variations in listening comprehension under adverse conditions. Her research addresses both external factors affecting listening effort and internal cognitive mechanisms that help children to cope with external challenges.

“My dissertation aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how these adverse conditions impact listening effort and comprehension,” she said. “This could have significant implications for educational practices, especially in designing interventions and strategies to support children with different listening and cognitive profiles.”

In her academic career, Murgia plans to expand her research to include children with hearing loss and special needs. Her goal is to improve the academic outcomes and overall well-being of all children by identifying effective ways to reduce listening effort and optimize learning environments.

“I hope that my research empowers children by advocating for their communication needs and ensuring that they have access to the resources and support they require to succeed academically and socially,” she said. “I want to contribute to creating inclusive environments where all children can thrive.”

Vocal intensity

December 2023 graduate Simin Soleimanifar’s dissertation research investigated how using two cochlear implants, known as bilateral cochlear implantations, affected the ability of users to control variations in vocal intensity, or the volume of their voice, as compared to users with a unilateral cochlear implantation.

Soleimanifar noted that the challenges faced by bilateral cochlear implant users in controlling vocal intensity have not been widely researched. Through her study, she hoped to identify the underlying factors contributing to the challenges, with a specific focus on how differences in the perception of loudness growth between the two ears affect vocal performance.

“Vocal performance plays a crucial role in effective communication, and difficulties in controlling vocal intensity can lead to social and emotional consequences for the individuals affected,” Soleimanifar said. “By shedding light on the specific auditory perceptions that influence these difficulties, this research has the potential to lead to better-tailored cochlear implant programming and rehabilitation strategies, ultimately improving the communication outcomes for bilateral cochlear implantation users as well as their overall quality of life.”

Mentored by SHS Associate Professor Justin Aronoff in the Binaural Hearing Lab, Soleimanifar currently is a clinical research associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is pursuing a career that bridges research and clinical practice. In addition to providing empirical evidence on the impact of bilateral cochlear implantation on vocal intensity control and identifying the role that mismatched loudness growth perception between ears plays in vocal performance, she hopes to inform clinical practice by highlighting the need for individualized implant programming and rehabilitation approaches that consider the auditory perceptions specific to bilateral cochlear implantations. Soleimanifar is particularly interested in applying her research findings within a multidisciplinary team to develop innovative implant technologies and rehabilitation strategies.

Tags: College of Applied Health Sciences, Justin Aranoff, Lizzy Lydon, Raksha Mudar, SHS Spring Newsletter 2024, Silvia Murga, Students

Georgia Malandraki named new head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science

May 13, 2025 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Malandraki succeeds Pamela Hadley

*Georgia Malandraki earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 2008. (Photo provided)*

The College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Georgia A. Malandraki as the new head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science, effective January 2026. Dr. Malandraki brings with her an exceptional record of scholarly achievement, clinical innovation and academic leadership that will advance the department’s mission in education, research and service.

Dr. Malandraki succeeds Dr. Pamela Hadley as department head, who was appointed department head in 2020. Dr. Hadley will continue serving as the Charles and Kay Stenberg Endowed Professor in Disability Research.

“Since earning my Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Science from Illinois in 2008, I have been fortunate to have a deeply fulfilling career—one that has been profoundly shaped by the training and mentorship I received during my doctoral years,” Malandraki said. “It is an incredible honor to return to my alma mater to serve as head of SHS. As I step into this role, I am beyond humbled and filled with excitement.

“I follow in the footsteps of professor and current head, Dr. Pamela Hadley, whose compassionate leadership and dedication have strengthened the department through growth and challenges, including during the pandemic. I first met Dr. Hadley during my final year as a doctoral student, and her warmth and generosity have left a lasting impression—one she has carried into her impactful tenure as head. I am deeply grateful for her example and the foundation that she, along with her distinguished predecessors, has built. As I take on this role, I do so with humility, gratitude, and a strong commitment to inclusive excellence, innovation, and collaboration. I look forward to working alongside the exceptional SHS faculty, students, and staff, and under the inspiring leadership of AHS Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, as we continue to advance impactful research, education, and service in the field of communication sciences and disorders at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Go Illini!”

Dr. Malandraki joins the University of Illinois from Purdue University, where she served as a professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, with a courtesy appointment in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. At Purdue, she directed the I-EaT Swallowing Research Laboratory and Clinic and played a pivotal role in interdisciplinary research and education focused on the neural mechanisms of swallowing function.

Dr. Malandraki earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 2008 after earning her master’s at Ohio University and her undergraduate degree from the Technological Educational Institute of Patras, Greece.

An internationally recognized expert in dysphagia, Dr. Malandraki is a certified speech-language pathologist, a board-certified specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders, and a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Her groundbreaking work has focused on the development of neurophysiologically driven interventions and telehealth solutions to expand access to care for individuals with swallowing disorders, particularly in underserved populations.

Dr. Malandraki is a founding member of the Purdue CEREBBRAL Center and a faculty associate with the Purdue Center for Aging and the Life Course. Her contributions to the field have earned her numerous accolades, including the NIH NIBIB R21 Trailblazer Award in 2019, the Purdue Early Career Research Achievement Award, and the 2021 ASHA Fellowship. Her team also received the 2021 Editor’s Award from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR), and she was honored with the 2022 Honors of the Indiana Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

In addition to her research accomplishments, Dr. Malandraki is widely respected for her commitment to excellence in teaching. Since joining Purdue in 2014, she has been recognized with eight departmental teaching awards and received the 2018 Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award from Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Malandraki to the University of Illinois,” said Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences. “Her visionary leadership, collaborative spirit and unwavering dedication to advancing the science and practice of communication and swallowing disorders make her an ideal choice to lead our Department of Speech and Hearing Science into its next chapter.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

Tags: Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, Georgia Malandraki, Moving Forward, Pamela Hadley, Speech and Hearing Science

Q&A: Pamela Hadley, SHS Department Head

Jan. 15, 2024 | Lisa Bralts

Dr. Pamela Hadley joined the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in AHS in 2007 and has been department head since 2021. A tireless advocate for the groundbreaking work of SHS colleagues past and present, Dr. Hadley somehow found the time for an energetic interview on a sunny September afternoon.

*‘We have such a great group of remarkable scientists who are really committed to rigor in their research,’ Department Head Pamela Hadley said. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)*

Q: This year’s deeper dives into the history of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois have been fascinating. Was there anything in any of these explorations that surprised you, even in your role as the department’s head?

A: Oh, absolutely. For example, I didn’t know how instrumental faculty at the University of Illinois had been in the development of the ASHA [American Speech-Language-Hearing Association] journals. The field continues to grapple, even today, with how to disseminate scientific findings.

There also are many discussions about opening up access to science, especially those things that are federally funded by taxpayer dollars. The internet and social media have fundamentally changed the number of options for sharing scientific findings and clinical resources with the public. That’s something that, looking forward, we will continue to work through. With regard to the SHS at 50 stories, it was really important for me to appreciate the role that Illinois faculty had in the development of those early journals at the very beginning.

Q: What are some topics you would have liked to explore for this series if we’d had more time?

A: Something we talked about early on was exploring paradigm shifts in the field. There are individuals from Illinois who were responsible for changing the way in which our field approached clinical practice. Some of those researchers include Dean Emerita Tanya Gallagher and Carol Prutting, who were mentored by Tom Shriner Jr. in the 1970s. Together they were responsible for bringing the pragmatics revolution into the field of speech-language pathology and establishing the subfield of clinical pragmatics, focused on how language is used in conversational interactions.

Another example: Elaine Paden and Ph.D. student Barbara Hodson contributed to a paradigm shift in how we treat young children’s speech-sound disorders. They were instrumental in shifting the field toward treating classes of sounds to improve the intelligibility of young children’s speech more efficiently. That was a huge paradigm shift.

Professor Emerita Adrienne Perlman was an advocate for expanding the speech-language pathology scope of practice to include dysphagia, or swallowing disorders. When I was a clinical student, swallowing wasn’t part of our scope of practice yet! Now it’s such a fundamental aspect of medical SLPs’ role in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in particular.

Finally, it would have been wonderful to highlight major research projects throughout the history of the department, such as the Illinois International Stuttering Research Project that was led by Professor Emeritus Ehud Yairi.

Q: What’s impressed you the most about the department’s growth and development since you joined the faculty?

A: I’m so impressed with my faculty colleagues. We have such a great group of remarkable scientists who are really committed to rigor in their research. They hold themselves and their students to high standards, and at the same time, they’re just truly wonderful people who’ve been so committed to delivering high-quality instruction through some really unprecedented times. I admire their resilience. I enjoy their company. In short, I’m just really proud to lead this department.

Q: What are some new areas in this field that recent graduates, current students, and students who will join you in the next few years have, or will have, the expertise to address as they move into their careers?

A: Telehealth is a professional area that has really expanded rapidly in the last three years. Prior to COVID-19, students weren’t trained to assess or treat via telehealth at all. It was considered to be an advanced clinical skill and not something that students would be expected to learn until they had years of clinical practice under their belt.

During the stay-at-home mandates, telehealth became a lifeline, and it caused our professional bodies to reconsider whether this was an essential skill that all our students in training needed to have. We also had many research projects that were required to pivot to remote data collection. Students today are far more advanced in their knowledge and skills in this area, and they are better prepared to conduct research and deliver clinical services remotely than prior graduates.

Q: Let’s talk a bit more about the department’s Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Clinic. You’ve referred to it as the “crown jewel” of the department’s community outreach efforts. How would you like to see the clinic evolve?

A: This summer we had a public meeting as part of a follow-up, in-person site visit from our accreditation body, and a number of individuals who received services from our clinic and their family members attended the meeting. They just raved to the site visitors about the services that they were receiving and the impact of those services on their well-being and quality of life. To hear that kind of feedback from the families that we serve just means everything—it’s so essential to what we’re trying to accomplish in terms of our public engagement and outreach, and it’s testimony to how critically important communication skills are to participation in everyday activities. That encapsulates why I’ve referred to the clinic as a “crown jewel.”

I’d really like to see the clinic expand its sphere of influence beyond the Urbana-Champaign community. My dream for the clinic would be for it to be a center of excellence, particularly for families in rural communities that may not have access to state-of-the-science resources in their local communities. Also, it would be my hope that we could bring individuals here for comprehensive assessments and develop the types of support those families might need for ongoing care, and then maintain that contact through telehealth with educators or health care providers in their local communities. I think that that could be really powerful.

Q: We’ve established through these stories that the SHS faculty at Illinois have been pioneers in the research, and they’ve been leaders in their profession since the beginning. Will these stories serve as inspiration for future activities? Where do you think this department can lead your disciplines in the future?

A: I think these stories helped us bring history alive and explored some topics in a more conversational way than reading a review of the history of the department. What I most hope, though, is that these stories provide our students and faculty with a strong sense of where they come from and, really, a deeper appreciation of the fact they’re standing on the shoulders of giants—pioneers who really established the profession and were influential from the beginning.

Where do I think SHS will lead the discipline in the future? I envision SHS faculty and students contributing to innovations in health technology, including the use of that technology to improve treatment options, and evaluating how different design features might promote people’s use of those technologies and what new technologies are desired. Those health technologies could include how we are designing and developing hearing aids, which treatments best fit an individual’s cognitive profiles and communication needs, how we interact with augmentative and alternative communication devices, how we use speech recognition devices, or how we use different kinds of technologies to age in place successfully. Technology has moved really quickly just in the last year. So the next 50 years? It’s hard to imagine where we’ll be!

For more on the 50th anniversary of SHS at Illinois, check out our stories at shs.illinois.edu/shs-50.

Tags: Moving Forward, Pamela Hadley, SHS

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Q: This year’s deeper dives into the history of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois have been fascinating. Was there anything in any of these explorations that surprised you, even in your role as the department’s head?

Q: What are some topics you would have liked to explore for this series if we’d had more time?

Q: What’s impressed you the most about the department’s growth and development since you joined the faculty?

Q: What are some new areas in this field that recent graduates, current students, and students who will join you in the next few years have, or will have, the expertise to address as they move into their careers?

Q: Let’s talk a bit more about the department’s Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Clinic. You’ve referred to it as the “crown jewel” of the department’s community outreach efforts. How would you like to see the clinic evolve?

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