EDUCATION

• August 2002 – present, Rice University, Houston, Texas, Ph.D. Program in Linguistics, Doctoral Candidate – Spring 2005.

• May 2005 - Rice University, Houston, Texas, Master of Arts - Linguistics

• June 1999 – December 2000, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, Master of Arts – Communication Sciences and Disorders.

• August 1995 – May 1999, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, Bachelor of Science with High Honors – Communication Sciences and Disorders.

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

• Neurolinguistics

• Speech Perception

• Sociolinguistics

• Audiology

• I hold a current Texas Audiology License, Texas License to Fit and Dispense Hearing Instruments, and the American Speech Language Hearing Association Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology

MEMBERSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

• American Speech Language Hearing Association: 2001-present

• Linguistic Society of America: 2002-2004

• Acoustical Society of America: 2003-2004

• Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States: 2004-present

HONORS AND AWARDS

• Golden Key National Honor Society

• Gamma Beta Phi Society

• Dean’s Honor List and University Honors: 1996, 1997, 1998

• College Scholar: 1998, 1999

• University Fellow: 1999-2000

• Recipient of the Scott Haug Foundation Outstanding Graduate Student Scholarship Award: 2000

• Certificate for Participation in Teaching Workshops for Current and Future Teachers, Rice University Office of Graduate Studies: 2004

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• January 2006 – May 2006, Instructor, Rice University, Speech and Hearing Science (LING 212)
  This course describes the basics of speech and hearing science, including, but not limited to:
  anatomy and physiology of speech and hearing mechanisms, neural pathways involved in speech
  and hearing, speech pathology and audiology, types of speech and hearing disorders, their causes,
  and types of therapies available for the remediation of these disorders.
  


• August 2005 – May 2006, Co-coordinator, Rice University, Professions in Speech Sciences (LING 396)
  This course is a lecture series by local speech and hearing professionals who discuss their current
  research and/or clinical focus.
  


• August 2005 – December 2005, Assistant Instructor with Dr. Sydney Lamb, Rice University, Neurolinguistics (LING 411)
  Responsible for the portion of the course concerning functional brain imaging (PET, fMRI, and Magnetoencephalography).
  


• August 2004 – December 2004, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Katherine Crosswhite, Rice University, Phonetics
  Developed and taught the lesson on audition.
  


• December 2003 – May 2004, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Sydney Lamb, Rice University, Neurolinguistics
  
  Developed and taught the lessons on brain anatomy and physiology.
  


• October 16, 2003, Guest Lecturer, Bellaire High School: Bellaire, Texas, “Dialects and Language Variation”
  


• August 2002 – December 2002, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Nancy Niedzielski, Rice University, Introduction to the Scientific Study of Language
  
  Developed and taught the lesson on neurolinguistics
  


• August 1999 – December 2000, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Frederick Martin, The University of Texas at Austin, Introduction to Audiology and Clinical Audiology
  
  From October through December 2000, while the professor was on a leave of absence, I was responsible for all aspects of the course including preparing lectures, teaching lectures, teaching laboratory meetings, preparing exams, and grading
   

PUBLICATIONS

PAPERS PRESENTED BEFORE LEARNED SOCIETIES

1. “The Northern Cities Shift of Ballston Spa, New York.” Presented at the Rice University Linguistics Colloquium, November 20, 2003.

2. “The Northern Cities Shift of Ballston Spa, New York.” Presented at the American Dialect Society Annual Meeting at the Linguistic Society of America Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, January 8, 2004.

3. “Nouns and Verbs in the Mental Lexicon.” Presented at the Rice University Linguistics Colloquium, September 2, 2004.

4. “Neuroimaging Studies of Brain Mechanisms of Language.” Co-presented with Dr. Andrew Papanicolaou at the Rice University Linguistics Colloquium, September 9, 2004.

5. "The Progression of the Northern Cities Shift in Ballston Spa, New York." Presented at the 33rd New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 1, 2004.

6. “Magnetoencephalography: The Latest Brain ImagingTechnique.” Presented during the Workshop on Neurolinguistics at the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States (LACUS) Conference, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 4, 2005.

7. “Nouns and Verbs in the Mental Lexicon.” Presented at the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States (LACUS) Conference, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 5, 2005.
 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

January 2005 – present                          Research Assistant II

                                                            Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Laboratory

                                                            Division of Clinical Neurosciences

                                                            Department of Neurosurgery

                                                            University of Texas Houston Health Science Center  

                                                            and The Vivian L. SmitH Center for Neurologic Research

                                                            Houston, Texas

                                                            Conducting language testing (including the Western                                                                             Aphasia Battery and the Object and Action Naming                                                                                                    Battery), MEG acquisitions, and Constraint Induced                                                                    Language Therapy (CILT) of individuals with a                                                                  history of stroke.

March 2005 – present                             Syntax Co-coordinator

                                                            Expressive Language in Aphasia Study

In conjunction with The Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and The University of Florida

Coordinating the syntactic branch of a large-scale, multidisciplinary study of aphasics’ expressive language and conducting research on the effects of therapy and discourse type on the syntactic complexity of nonfluent aphasics’ conversational discourse

January 2004 – March 2005                    Volunteer Research Assistant to Dr. Lynn Maher

                                                            Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center

                                                            Houston, Texas

Researching the effects of therapy and discourse type on the syntactic complexity of nonfluent aphasics’ conversational discourse

May 2004 – January 2005                       Volunteer Student Research Assistant

                                                            Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Laboratory

                                                            Division of Clinical Neurosciences                                                                                 Department of Neurosurgery

University of Texas Houston Health Science Center and The Vivian L. Smith Center for Neurologic Research          

Houston, Texas

                                                            Designing linguistic experiments, performing                                                                   acquisitions using MEG technology, and conducting                                                                 analyses of acquired results

May 2003 – December 2003                    Research Assistant to Dr. Michael Barlow

                                                            Rice University

                                                            Houston, Texas

                                                            Researching the ties between cognitive linguistics                                                                and corpus linguistics for future publications

RELATED EXPERIENCE

August 2003 – August 2004                     Assistant to Dr. Lilly Chen, Secretary Treasurer of                                                              the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United                                                              States (LACUS)

                                                            Houston, Texas

Handling the bookkeeping and other record keeping for LACUS and handling the sales and shipping of LACUS proceedings to members and subscribers

September 2003 – January 2004             Editor for Dr. Lilly Chen

                                                            Rice University

Houston, Texas

                                                            Editing Dr. Chen’s book on Taiwanese

February 2001 – August 2002                  Audiologist

                                                            Baylor College of Medicine

                                                            Houston, Texas

Diagnosing hearing loss via behavioral testing, otoacoustic emissions, and auditory evoked potentials

Division of Clinical Neurosciences
Department of Neurosurgery and
The Vivian L. Smith Center for Neurologic Research
University of Texas Houston Health Science Center
1333 Moursund Street Ste H114
Houston, Texas 77030