| |  |  |  | | | Faculty | Research Faculty | Staff | Adjunct Faculty | Emeritus Faculty | | Faculty  | Kathryn Arehart, Ph.D. CCC-A, Associate Professor (University of Washington)
Dr. Arehart's primary area of expertise in both teaching and research is audiology and hearing science. She is head of the Hearing Research Laboratory. The laboratory’s research focuses on understanding auditory perception and the impact hearing loss has on listening in complex auditory environments. Current research projects include the effects of hearing loss on pitch perception, signal-processing algorithms to improve speech-in-noise perception by persons with hearing loss, perception of sound quality, and the interactive effects of aging and hearing loss on speech perception. These research projects include interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues in engineering, psychology, and cognitive science. Professor Arehart teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in speech and hearing science and audiology and leads outreach workshops for K-12 teachers on teaching children about sound, hearing and hearing health. She is also a certified clinical audiologist. Email
|  | Karen Carpenter, M.A., CCC-A, Clinical Instructor (University of Colorado at Boulder)
Karen Carpenter provides clinical training for Audiology doctoral students in the clinical Ph.D. and Au.D. programs. Clinical experience in the full-service Audiology Center includes hearing screening and diagnostic hearing testing, hearing aid evaluation/dispensing/follow-up/repair, central auditory processing evaluation, communication skills classes, hearing aid clinics in retirement homes, observations, service learning projects and community service. She graduated from CU's SLHS department and has been a clinical audiologist in Boulder for 35 years. Audiology experience includes an ENT physician's office, 20 years at Boulder Community Hospital's Mapleton Rehabilitation Center, and clinical instruction in CU's SLHS department since 2000. She continues a 12-year association with cognitive therapists, working with adults with brain injury and a 20 year association with the Colorado Home Intervention Program, working with families of children with hearing loss. Email |  | Donald S. Finan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (Indiana University)
Professor Finan's research focuses on investigating aspects of motor control for speech and other oromotor behaviors. He uses perturbation paradigms to investigate oromotor control in infants, children and adults to altered sensorimotor environments. Projects include studies on speech and feeding development in infants, the development of respiratory/laryngeal coordination for speech in children, responses to auditory perturbation (altered auditory feedback or acoustic startle) in individuals who stutter, and articulatory responses to lingual perturbation. He teaches courses on speech science and the neuroscience of communication. He is a co-developer of the Actifier II and NTrainer technologies, devices used to assess and provide therapeautic stimulation to premature infants with oromotor feeding deficits. Dr. Finan is on faculty for the Center for Neuroscience at CU. In his free time, he enjoys playing the guitar and mountain biking, although not at the same time. Email |  | Bette L. Hadler, M.S., CCC-SLP, Clinical Instructor (Temple University)
Bette Hadler‘s main fields of investigation and practice are Aphasia and Neurocognitive Disorders secondary to Stroke and Head Injury. She started out in pre-med and theatre. Both of these areas led her to the field of speech-language pathology. She received her degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Temple University in Philadelphia. Her professional affiliations have been Magee Memorial Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, Jefferson University Medical College and Rehabilitation Center, Philadelphia Pa; Daniel Freeman Neuro-Rehabilitation Center, Los Angeles Ca., UCLA Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center, and The Center for Cognition and Communication Los Angeles. She also served as Chair of the Gerontology and Long Term Care Management program at Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado.Bette is currently on the clinical faculty of The University of Colorado, Boulder focusing on Neurodiagnostics as well as intervention for clients experiencing Aphasia and neurocognitive deficits. Bette’s particular interest is the impact of the creative arts upon recovery within community, focusing on such skills as Visual Arts, Theatre, Creative Writing, Music and Conversation. She offers these group programs annually as “The Aphasia Summer Institute” at the Boulder Campus of The University of Colorado. Email |  | Cynthia Hunnicutt, M.S., CCC-SLP, Clinical Instructor (Arizona State University)
Cynthia Hunnicutt a clinical supervisor in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Center (SLHC). Her areas of interest are bilingual language acquisition (Spanish/English and ASL/English) and aural rehabilitation. She is collaborating with the clinical audiology department to provide services in the SLHC for children and adults with cochlear implants. She is also currently providing supervision in the areas of articulation, literacy, and early child development. She previously worked at Gallaudet University as a Speech-Language Pathologist, providing assessment of and service provision for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Email |  | Laura Jennings Kepler, PhD, CCC-A, Clinical Instructor (University of Colorado)
Dr. Kepler’s primary area of interest and practice is diagnostic Audiology and amplification. She received her Master of Science degree in Audiology from Purdue University and her PhD from the University of Colorado, where she conducted research on benefit provided by specific amplification characteristics and acoustic telephone use by people with hearing loss. Dr. Kepler has extensive clinical experience in a variety of facilities, including an ENT practice in Indiana, the VA medical center in Denver and the Children’s Hospital in Denver. Dr. Kepler teaches courses on amplification, business aspects of Audiology practice, and professional issues and ethics. She is the Coordinator of Audiology Services and a clinical preceptor and service provider for the Speech Language and Hearing Center. Dr. Kepler is a member of the American Academy of Audiology Continuing Education Sub-committee and the American Academy of Audiology Professional Standards Committee. She is a past board member of the Colorado Academy of Audiology and of the National Task Force on Mild and Unilateral Hearing Loss of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Kepler currently serves as the unilateral hearing loss representative for the Adult Role Model program of the Colorado Hearing Impaired Project (CHIP). Email |  | Willy Moers
Instructor Moers teaches all levels of American Sign Language (ASL) and has also taught an anthropological course entitled Ethnography of the (American) Deaf Community. A native ASL signer by birth, he comes from four generations of culturally Deaf families. A globetrotter, flyfisherman and skier by interest, he has also participated in many summer Deaf Olympics in the hammerthrow and discus events, an experience which is not only competitive but also culturally rich. He graduated from Gallaudet University, which is the only liberal arts college in the world for deaf students. He brings a rich cultural perspective to his teaching, where students not only learn ASL, but about the complex and historic deaf culture. His favorite quote is by George Veditz, one of the early presidents of National Association of the Deaf, "As long as we have deaf people, we will always have sign language." E-mail
|  | Susan M. Moore JD, MA-SLP, CCC, Director of Clinical Education and Services (Universiy of Denver)
Susan Moore is the Director of Clinical Education and Services for the department, directs the Speech Language and Hearing Center on campus and is a member of the graduate faculty. In her administrative capacity, she develops innovative programs that offer opportunities in clinical education for all graduate students as well as coordinates all off-campus clinical education and internships in the MA-SLP program. She also teaches core coursework in language development including prevention, assessment and early intervention for young children and their families and clinical theory and practice focusing on implementation of culturally competent, family centered supports and services. She has successfully developed and institutionalized a distance-learning program for SLPA personnel development as project director of a four year USDOE grant and has co-authored a text with Lynea Pearson, Competencies and Strategies for Speech Language Pathology Assistants. She also teaches coursework in multicultural aspects and has developed several educational programs and videos on this topic including A Story about El Grupo, a parent education and support program developed as a clinical education opportunity for bilingual Spanish speaking graduate students. Her most recent publications include articles and chapters focused on working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and families and early language and literacy learning. As Project Director of the Early Learning Opportunity Grant she has developed graduate student involvement in outreach to improve quality of language and literacy in early care and education settings with providers and family members. She has collaborated with the Denver Public Schools in an Early Reading First project to provide student accessibility to working with CLD children in an urban setting. She also serves as the ASHA Director for the SLHS Department and is an ASHA Fellow and holds Specialty Recognition in Child Language. Email |  | Lynea Pearson, M.A. CCC-SLP, Clinical Instructor (University of Colorado at Boulder)
Lynea is a clinical supervisor for the speech language graduate program. Her areas of interest include Augmentative and Alternative Communication, preschool speech and language as well as school age language and literacy. Lynea enjoys networking with public schools. She currently is collaborating with Denver Public School’s Early Reading First Grant by providing language and literacy intervention with graduate students in 5 classrooms each week. She is also teaming with St. Vrain Valley School District providing an after school literacy program called Read It! for at risk students in elementary school. For several years, Lynea supervised graduate students working in the Child Learning Center Preschool. Lynea also coordinates the Speech Language Pathology Assistant Professional Certificate program for CU and is the SLPA Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Education. Lynea published an SLPA textbook called “Competencies and Strategies for the SLPA”. Email |  | Lorraine Olson Ramig, Ph.D., CCC-SLP (Purdue University)
Dr. Ramig is a Professor in the Department of Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at the University of Colorado-Boulder, a Senior Scientist at the National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS), a division of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, located in Denver, Colorado, an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Teacher’s College in New York City, and Founder/President of the LSVT® Foundation (a non-profit organization). Dr. Ramig received her Ph.D. at Purdue University, her Masters degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Bachelors Degree at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language Hearing Association and is a Fellow in this organization. Dr. Ramig and her colleagues developed the LSVT® treatment for patients with Parkinson disease and she has been the principal investigator of LSVT® treatment studies with over 15 years of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Dr. Ramig is currently a member of the NIH-NIDCD (National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders) Advisory Council. Email |  | Peter Ramig, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Professor (Purdue University)
Professor Ramig’s area of specialization is stuttering in children and adults. His writings include numerous research articles, many book chapters pertaining to the topic of stuttering, a 2005 published book with co-author Darrell Dodge, The Child and Adolescent Stuttering Treatment and Activity Resource Guide, and another very recent published book on stuttering treatment, Practical Therapy Strategies for Working More Effectively with Children and Teens Who Stutter. In addition, he has been one of a small team of researcher-clinicians selected from various universities to cooperatively develop over the years numerous professional training videos and DVDs on the topic of stuttering treatment. These training videos, produced by the Stuttering Foundation, are manufactured in several different languages and dispersed world-wide. He is also Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Email |  | Gail Ramsberger, Sc.D., Associate Professor and Department Chair (Boston University)
Dr. Ramsberger specializes in adult neurogenic disorders of communication. Her research focuses on understanding how linguistic, cognitive, social, environmental and emotional factors contribute to communicative success in persons with brain damage and then using this knowledge to develop new rehabilitation methods for persons with acquired neurologically-based language and cognitive disorders. She is holds board certification in adult disorders from the Academy of Neurogenic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS), as well as the Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA). The National Institutes of Health, James S. McDonnell Foundation and the National Science Foundation have funded her research. She received her B.A. (1977) in Communication Disorders and Psychology and her M.A. (1979) in Communication Disorders both from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Email |  | Brenda Schick, Ph.D., CED, Associate Professor (Purdue University)
Dr. Schick studies the development of signed and spoken languages as well as its relationship to cognition in deaf children. Her recent work has focused on the development of a Theory of Mind in deaf children and how it relates to language skills. Her work, with colleagues, shows that complex language skills are essential for the development of skills in social cogntiion. Currently, with colleagues from the University of Washington, she is working on a tool to assess Quality of Life in students with a hearing loss, funded by NIH. Dr. Schick is the co-developer of the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA), a tool designed to evaluate the skills of K-12 interpreters. With colleagues, she has published data on the performance skills of interpreters who work in the K-12 setting. She is also the developer of the EIPA Written Test and the website dedicated to K-12 interpreting, www.classroominterpreting.org . She is the co-developer of a sign language curriculum designed for parents, Sign With Me, as well as a series of childrenÂs books that have been translated into ASL by deaf adults and children, Read With Me. She has served as the school board president for Rocky Mountain Deaf School, a bilingual charter school for deaf children in metro Denver. She was a classroom teacher for deaf children. In addition, she is a CODA, having grown up in a deaf family. Lab Website | E-mail
|  | Anu Sharma, Ph.D., Professor (Northwestern University)
Professor Sharma’s research focuses on the effects of auditory deprivation on cortical development, re-organization and cross modal plasticity in children with hearing impairment. Dr. Sharma and her research team are conducting studies using cortical auditory evoked potentials in normal-hearing children, hearing impaired children fitted with cochlear implants & hearing aids and children with auditory neuropathy. She directs the state-of-the-art Brain and Behavior Laboratory where students perform auditory electrophysiology testing including auditory brainstem response, middle latency response, cortical potentials, high density electroencephalography (EEG) in response to auditory and multisensory stimulation. She has recently started incorporating magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques in her research. Dr. Sharma also directs a clinical laboratory located at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver where she is performing research to assess the sensitivity of cortical potentials as clinical biomarkers to determine the maturational status of the central auditory system in hearing impaired persons. Dr. Sharma’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lab website Email |  | Amy Thrasher, M.A., CCC-SLP, Clinical Instructor (University of Colorado at Boulder)
Amy Thrasher received her B.A. in psychology from Williams College in 1993 and her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from CU Boulder in 1997. She has worked clinically in inclusive settings with young children in Denver and Boulder and is the classroom teacher at the Child Learning Center at the Speech Language Hearing Center. Her areas of specialization include child language development, social communication, peer interaction, inclusion, early literacy development, Autism Spectrum Disorders, parent education and support, Interactive Learning Strategies (INREAL), The Storybook Journey, and clinical pedagogy. Story of Friendship Email
|  | Anne Whitney, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, Clinical Instructor (University of Northern Colorado)
Anne Whitney is a speech-language pathologist and special educator who is a member of the clinical and teaching faculties at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus. Dr. Whitney has extensive clinical and teaching expertise in language learning disabilities in children, adolescents, and adults, with particular expertise in dyslexia and language learning disabilities. Dr. Whitney has taught numerous university courses and has clinically trained graduate students in methods for assessment and intervention of children and adults with dyslexia and other language learning disabilities. She has worked extensively in a public school setting, teaching in regular middle school classrooms and in special education classes with an emphasis on language learning disabilities and literacy. Dr. Whitney is an Educational Consultant to Learning By Design, Inc. She has presented nationally on Spelling Performance Evaluation for Language & Literacy (SPELL) and has collaborated with the SPELL authors to create SPELL-Links to Literacy: A word study curriculum. Prior to rejoining the University of Colorado team, Dr. Whitney served as the Executive Director of LANGUAGE !, a literacy intervention curriculum, at Sopris West Educational Services. She maintains her membership in the National Council of LANGUAGE ! Trainers and has trained thousands of teachers and special educators across the United States in the implementation of the LANGUAGE ! curriculum. She is the coauthor of Games and Activities for Readers and Spellers and the Instructional Resource Guide for Teachers, components of the LANGUAGE ! curriculum. Dr. Whitney is also a certified National Trainer for both LETRS, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, by Dr. Louisa Moats. Email |  | Phillip Gilley, Ph.D., CCC-A
Phillip Gilley is a faculty research associate in the Brain and Behavior Laboratory. He conducts research in development and plasticity of multisensory cortical interactions using high-density EEG and other brain mapping techniques. Email |
 | Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, Ph.D., CCC-A, Professor (Northwestern University)
Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano is both a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing and an audiologist. She has conducted research in the areas of language, speech, and social-emotional development of deaf and hard-of-hearing infants and children for over thirty years. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Education, Maternal and Child Health, the Center for Disease Control, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Department of Education, and the University of Colorado. Over the last 20 years, she has focused on the impact of early-identification and early intervention on the developmental outcomes of children with significant hearing loss. Professor Yoshinaga-Itano was the first to demonstrate that when infants with hearing loss are identified in the first few months of life and provided with appropriate intervention services, that 80% these infants/children with significant hearing loss and no additional disabilities are able to maintain age-appropriate language development and intelligible speech in the first five years of life. As a result of this research, universal newborn hearing screening programs were implemented in the United States. The only other newborn screening mandated in the United States is screening for phenyketonuria (PKU). Professor Yoshinaga-Itano’s research demonstrated that it was critical that identification of hearing loss and early intervention must occur within the first six months of life in order for the majority of children with congenital hearing loss to maintain language development commensurate with their normal hearing peers, indicating that there is a sensitive period of communication development that requires access to language development early in life. She also studies the development of infants/toddlers and children with hearing disabilities in non-English speaking homes. The impact of early identification and intervention on successful outcomes of children with hearing loss was found irrespective of the socio-economic status of the families, the method of communication, the race/ethnicity of the family/child, or the gender of the child. As a direct result of her research studies, universal newborn hearing screening programs have now been implemented in all 50 states and also in many countries throughout the world, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, Poland, and Brazil. Email |
| | | |
