School Updates

Summer 2025

Faculty and Staff are bolded; current students and alumni are noted with an asterisk *

GRANTS 

Dr. Naomi Eichorn was awarded funding for Year 3 of an R21 grant from NIH/NIDCD for her research examining threat-related attentional biases in speakers who stutter via eye tracking methodology. The project is being done in collaboration with Dr. Luca Campanelli (New York Medical College), Dr. Meredith Ray (UM), Dr. Yair Bar-Haim (Tel Aviv University), and Dr. Daniel Pine (NIMH) and aims to better understand the role of attention control and attention bias in shaping psycho-emotional responses to stuttering.  

Dr. Raghav Jha will serve as a co-investigator on an NIH-funded subaward (R01DC021684, Subaward No. S24-001-01) for the project titled "Nonlinearities in Human Vestibular Reflexes." In this collaborative study, Dr. Jha will apply novel methods to investigate vestibular function in humans. The research explores how non-linear characteristics in vestibular physiology relate to functional balance and perception. Together with the project’s principal investigator, Dr. Jha aims to understand vestibular processing across a range of stimuli, with the long-term goal of mitigating fall risk in older adults and individuals with dizziness.  

Dr. Jani Johnson received an industry-supported grant investigating the effectiveness of an over-the-counter class of self-fitting hearing aids. This clinical trial will support an application to the FDA for market clearance.    

Dr. Jani Johnson was selected for funding for the inaugural IIS Faculty Affiliate Summer Research Fellowship for a research project that aimed to investigate user preferences for hearing aids with features that incorporate adaptive AI algorithms and automatic environmental classification and those that do not. The fellowship supported research participant payments, supplies, and funded two students’ graduate assistantships. 

Dr. Deborah Moncrieff was selected to join the 2025 cohort of the Zero to 510 accelerator program within Epicenter, the innovation hub that supports developers of medical devices to optimize operations, logistics, and supply chains for startup companies.  Her team includes Drs. Bonny Banerjee and Carolyn Kaldon and software engineer Shahzeb Kazmi who will be funded to calibrate and troubleshoot the Audia Dichotics web-based software program and analyze outcome data from beta testing through the Fall. 

Zahra Poursoroush*, a late-stage doctoral candidate in the Origin of Language Lab, has received a one-year Graduate Research Grant Award from the University of Memphis to study “Duration of Gaps between Utterances in TD and Autistic Infants during Interactive and Non-interactive Moments.”  The data to be analyzed comes from the Origin of Language Laboratory’s archives.  

Dr. Sarah Warren received a grant from the ASHA Grant for Projects on Multicultural Activities for her team’s project: Community-Based Approaches to Identifying Barriers to Hearing Healthcare Among Black Adults: The Memphis SOUND Project. This funding will support the first year of a multi-year effort to understand factors that influence hearing thresholds and hearing health beliefs in the Memphis Community. The Memphis SOUND Project partners with faith-based organizations to carry out this work. If you are a part of a faith-based organization in Memphis that would like to participate in research promoting healthy communication in underserved communities, please contact sarah.warren@memphis.edu. 

AWARDS 

Vicki Haddix and Katherine Mendez have received a CRISCI Clinical Faculty Award for their project: Bringing Inclusive Technology for Writing into SLP Education. This project aims to increase clinical faculty members’ knowledge of inclusive technology to support writing so that 1) this knowledge can be shared with SLP graduate clinicians for their future clinical practice, 2) these tools can be used by graduate students who need them in both the SLP and AuD programs, and 3) we can facilitate DRS’s mission to support students with disabilities in our programs. 

CONGRATULATIONS 

Dr. Deborah Moncrieff was part of this summer's National Science Foundation Innovation (I-Corps) Hub for researchers and innovators to transform discoveries into real-world solutions. I-Corps is a requirement for the proposal she will submit to NSF in October for an STTR grant to support her company, Dichotics Inc, to commercialize her patented protocol to identify and treat dichotic deficits.

Dr. Miriam van Mersbergen submitted an NIH grant application investigating vocal error processing in individuals with functional dysphonia.  This R15 grant is multidisciplinary, involving Jeff Sable from the Department of Psychology and Meredith Ray from the Department of Public Health and will explore how vocal errors are perceptually and cognitively processed differently in those with functional dysphonia using electroencephalography, psychophysiological measures, acoustic voice measurements, and personality inventories.   

Memphis Speech and Hearing Center, Audiology clinic: Record-breaking year for bringing hearing aids to the Memphis community. 

PUBLICATIONS 

Haddix, V. (2025). How Universal Design for Learning boosts student engagement and outcomes. ASHA Leader. 

Jameson, M., & Bean, A. (2025). Mutual understanding: The role of neurotype-matching and perceptions in communication effectiveness. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

Jameson, M., & Bean, A. (2025). Implications of linguistic convergence and divergence among matched and mixed autistic and non-autistic communication partners. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 

Jha, R H., Piker, E. G., & Clinard, C. G. (2025). Effects of Age on the Bone-Conduction Amplitude-Modulated cVEMP Temporal Modulation Transfer Function. Ear and Hearing, 46(3), 696-706.  

 

Patel P., Parkes W., Pritchett C., Stewart M., Choudhari A., Nikam R., Hossain J., O’Reilly R., Morlet T. Auditory Characteristics in Children with Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct. Otol. Neurol. 2025, Jun 1, 46(5):544-551. 

Poursoroush, Z.*, Ramsay, G., Yang, C.-C., Buder, E. H., Bene, E. R., Su, P. L., Yoo, H.*, Long, H. L.*, Oller, D. K. (2025). Timing of Intervals Between Utterances in Typically Developing Infants and Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Sciences, 15(8), 819.  Article Link 

Oller, D. K., Bene,  E. R., Yoo, H,*  Su, P. L., Long, H,* Klaiman, C. Pulver, S. L., Richardson, S., Pileggi, M. L, Brane, N., Ramsay, G. (2025). The robustness of speech-like vocalization in typically developing infants and infants with autism. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 159.  Article Link 

Su, P. L., Ramsay, G., Bene,  E. R., Yoo, H,*  Long, H,* Klaiman, C. Pulver, S. L., Richardson, S., Pileggi, M. L, Brane, N., Oller, D. K.  (2025). Parentese Elicits Infant Speech-Like Vocalizations in Typically Developing and Autistic Infants. Infancy.  Article Link 

Lopez, L., Warren, S., Anthony, T., & Coco, L. (Accepted May, 2025). Promoting health equity through cross-sector strategies: The integration of communication public health. Frontiers in Public Health, section Public Health Education and Promotion. 13(2025) doi: 10.3389.1576973. 

PRESENTATIONS 

Buder, E.H. (2025, May) Acoustic features of communication with children who have Autism.  Invited Seminar conducted remotely with the School of Elementary Education and Special Education, Kunming University, People’s Republic of China.  

Eichorn, N. (2025, June) What’s attention got to do with it (stuttering): Attention-stuttering intersections and implications for clinical practice. Invited presentation at the American Board of Stuttering, Cluttering and Fluency Disorders.  

Marshall, J. (2025). Navigating Authority and Advocacy as a Person who Stutters. Presentation at the National Stuttering Association conference, July 2025.  

van Mersbergen, M. (2025) Perspectives on Voice Production and Emotion. Invited presentation in the Special Session on Voice and Emotion. 53rd Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice, June 2025, Philadelphia, PA. 

Elle Gilbert*, Abigail Atkins*, and Miriam van Mersbergen (2025). Considerations for Young Voice Users: A Survey of Singing Teachers and Music Educators on Voice Development and Fach Assignment in Adolescents. 53rd Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice, June 2025, Philadelphia, PA. 

Mankel, K., Dodson, J., & Arnold, L. (2025, June). Neural Markers of Emerging Speech Perception Challenges in Middle Age: Insights from Chirped Speech-Evoked Responses. Presentation at the 29th Biennial Symposium of the International Evoked Response Audiometry Study Group, Boulder, CO. 

OTHER 

Dr. Naomi Eichorn was nominated and elected to the TIPEC (TN Interprofessional Education Collaboration) Board of Directors where she will help lead state-wide efforts related to IPE.  

Dr. Thierry Morlet has been appointed Associate Editor of the International Journal of Audiology. 

Dr. Miriam van Mersbergen, in collaboration with the Department of Music, hosted a conference on voice training.  The Estil Voice Training system is an evidence-based singing teaching method designed for singing and acting coaches and is based on scientific evidence developed in the speech sciences.  48 individuals attended the conference, which was both online and in-person. 

Dr. Miriam van Mersbergen spent a week in Durham, England singing at the Durham Cathedral as part of a visiting choir.  Alumnae Karen Crow* and Samantha Powell* also sang in this tour. 

Dr. Miriam van Mersbergen was appointed as editor for the Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups and will continue as editor as they transition to another format. 

Dr. Miriam van Mersbergen was appointed as co-editor for The Voice, the Voice Foundation Newsletter.  

Amy P. Nabors, MA, CCC-SLP will host the next Mid-South area support group meeting for individuals with Spasmodic Dysphonia. The meeting will take place on campus this fall. Assigned graduate clinicians will also be in attendance and help to host this meeting.