Current Doctoral Students & Post-Doctoral Fellows

Joanna Hokenson received a master’s degree from Penn State.  Under the mentorship of Prof. Carol Hammer, her research areas encompass language and literacy development in Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs) including cultural and environmental factors that contribute to school readiness. Joanna is also interested in classroom practices that help support DLLs academic success.

Julie Smith is a doctoral student under Dr. Carol Scheffner Hammer. Her research interests include bilingual (Spanish-English) language development, with a focus on morphological and syntactic development in preschool dual language learners (DLLs). Specifically, she is interested in cultural and environmental factors, such as home and classroom language practices, that support the early oral language skills fundamental for DLLs' school readiness. 

Christine Vail received her M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Rush University. She practiced as a clinician for five years at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, specializing in pediatric rehabilitation, prior to applying for her doctorate. Christine is currently a doctoral student under Dr. Carol Scheffner Hammer. Her research interests include monolingual and bilingual child language acquisition, cultural and environmental influences on language development, and best-practice early language and literacy intervention.

Emilie Lowell, M.S., CCC-SLP is a doctoral student in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her master's degree in speech-language pathology from Vanderbilt University in 2016. Following this, she completed her clinical fellowship at the Boston VA Medical Center and continued to serve inpatient and outpatient populations there for several years before joining the Upper Airway Dysfunction lab in 2021. Emilie's research interests include translational research, improvements to instrumental evaluations of swallowing, and evidence-based treatments for neurogenic dysphagia.

Jiyoung Choi is a doctoral student under Dr. Erika Levy's mentorship. Jiyoung earned her master's degree in Linguistics from CUNY, Graduate Center, and another master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Lehman College, City University of New York. Jiyoung's research interests include speech treatment in pediatric dysarthria, speech perception and production in dysarthria, and rehabilitative and accessibility technologies for individuals with neuromotor disorders.

Katya Villarreal, M.S., CCC-SLP is a doctoral student in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her master's degree in speech-language pathology from Teachers College in 2021 and completed her clinical fellowship at Isabella’s Center for Rehabilitation in Manhattan. Katya joined the Upper Airway Dysfunction Laboratory in Fall 2022 and her research interests include cough and swallowing rehabilitation.

Y. Michelle Chang received an M.A. in Education from Harvard University, and an M.S. in Speech Language Pathology from MGH Institute of Health Professions. Michelle was a research assistant and manager in the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children’s Hospital, and she has worked extensively with individuals with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and ALS.  Under the mentorship of Prof. Erika Levy, her research areas include children’s typical and atypical speech and language development, speech treatment for individuals with cerebral palsy and other motor speech disorders, and cross-linguistic/bilingual speech production and perception. She and Prof Levy supervise the speech treatment summer camp for children with cerebral palsy. 

Akila Rajappa received her M.S. in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) from Bangalore University and M.A. in Psychology from Annamalai University, India. Under the mentorship of Prof. Michelle Troche, her research areas include neural mechanisms of airway protective behaviors of cough and swallowing. She is also interested in multicultural issues pertaining to clinical service delivery for Asian Indian populations in the US and currently serves as the Chair and President of Asian Indian Caucus (AIC), a multicultural constituency group of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). Akila is also a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (BCS-S) and has experience in acute care, long term acute care and skilled nursing facilities.

Marion Leaman received an M.S. in Speech Language Pathology from Boston University. Marion’s clinical focus is in adult neurogenic communication and swallowing disorders with a special interest in aphasia. Her experience includes service delivery throughout the continuum of medical care from Intensive Care and Trauma units to outpatient and home care services. Under the mentorship of Dr. Lisa A. Edmonds, she is pursuing research interests in conversation-based approaches to therapy programming for people with aphasia. In addition, Marion is an adjunct clinical faculty member at Southern Connecticut State University, in the neuro and adult speech and language clinics. She is the founder and director of a private practice in Southport, CT, where she specializes in individual and group therapy programs for adults with neurologically-based acquired communication disorders.

Sih-Chiao Hsu is a recent master’s and doctoral graduate of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Teachers College. Under the guidance of Dr. Erika Levy, her​ Ph.D. dissertation examined the effects of an intensive voice treatment on native Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD)​. Dr. Hsu is completing her clinical fellowship with bilingual extension for the New York City Department of Education, and works clinically with monolingual English and bilingual English-Mandarin adults and children with speech, language, and swallowing disorders. She continues to investigate the effects of speech treatment on vowels, consonants, and lexical tone as well as speech intelligibility in Mandarin speaking adults with Parkinson’s Disease. 

Gemma Moya-Galé  is a recent doctoral graduate of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Teachers College. Under the mentorship of Dr. Erika Levy, her Ph.D. dissertation examined the effects of intensive speech treatment on the intelligibility of Spanish-speaking individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. Moya-Galé specialized in Applied Linguistics and second language acquisition in Spain before moving to the United States in 2010 with a Fulbright Scholarship. Since her doctoral graduation, she has been working as a speech-language pathologist and clinical researcher at the Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Clinic of Teknon Medical Center, in Barcelona. There she specializes in speech treatment in Parkinson Disease. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Jessica Obermeyer is a recent doctoral graduate of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Teachers College. Under the guidance of Dr. Lisa Edmonds, Jessica completed her Ph.D. dissertation on the efficacy of a treatment to improve the written and spoken discourse of people with mild aphasia. Dr. Obermeyer is now a post-doctoral fellow at Temple University. Her research interests include discourse production in aphasia, treatment efficacy and the non-linguistic cognitive requirements of language production. Prior to earning her doctorate, she worked in a variety of clinical settings where she specialized in assessment and treatment of adult neurogenic populations. 

Miriam Baigorri is a recent doctoral graduate (and before that, a master’s graduate) of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Teachers College. Under the guidance of Dr. Erika Levy, she completed her dissertation on the perception of American English vowels by early and late Spanish-English bilingual adults. Dr. Baigorri was also a Clinical Instructor at the Edward D. Mysak Clinic for Communication Disorders and worked as a pediatric bilingual speech language pathologist at Bellevue Hospital. With Dr. Crowley, Dr. Baigorri co-founded the international SLP programs at Teachers College and developed cleft palate training programs in Guatemala and Colombia.  She co-teaches the cleft palate course at Teachers College and teaches/mentors bilingual clinicians at the Bilingual Extension Institute at Teachers College.

Kate Nealon is a fourth-year doctoral student and speech-language pathologist in the Aphasia Rehabilitation and Bilingualism Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. Kate completed her master’s degree at The University of Virginia in 2008 and began her doctoral work in the fall of 2017. Prior to beginning her studies and research, Kate worked clinically as an SLP specializing in pediatric and adult rehabilitation at Children’s Specialized Hospital, The Neurocognitive Institute and Rusk Rehabilitation at New York University. Kate’s research broadly aims to investigate the interaction of motor speech and language disorders, with a focus on the development of assessment and treatment measures for individuals with acquired apraxia of speech (A-AOS) and aphasia.  

James Curtis received a master’s degree from New York University and a post-graduate speech-language pathology clinical fellowship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center.  James continued to work as a speech-language pathologist within the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at UCSF prior to moving to New York City to begin his studies at Teachers College.  Under the mentorship of Prof. Michelle Troche, his research areas include normal and abnormal cough and swallowing physiology, and neuromuscular adaptations of the bulbar system sequela to strength and skill-based rehabilitation.