Former Trainees: What they are doing now

Dr. Bernie Lohr

Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County

Research in the Lohr Lab focuses on the auditory physiology and sensory biology of songbird acoustic communication. Dr. Lohr is interested in understanding the relationship between the production and perception of communication signals in the context of their mechanism, development, function, and evolution. Researchers at the Lohr Lab take an integrative approach that draws on methods from behavioral ecology, comparative psychology, neurophysiology, and evolutionary biology to investigate fundamental questions in animal communication.

KELSEY DUTTA

Kelsey Dutta is a graduate student working with Drs. Shihab Shamma in the Neural Systems Lab. She previously worked on neuroanatomy and electrical stimulation projects in the auditory midbrain while earning undergraduate degrees at the University of Connecticut. Her work at NSL will focus on signal processing and physiology in auditory and associated cortices.

Dr. Jonathan Simon

Current Position: Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Biology, University of Maryland

Dr. Simon's broad research goal is to understand how the auditory cortex processes complex sounds such as speech and other natural sounds. Because of the focus on speech and higher order processing, his research uses human rather than animal subjects. To non-invasively record and analyze real-time neural processing in humans, Dr. Simon's uses magnetoencephalography (MEG), because of its high temporal resolution (milliseconds) and reasonable spatial resolution (millimeters). Dr. Simon is now a C-CEBH faculty member and director of his own lab, the Computational Sensorimotor Systems Lab.

BRITTANY JAEKEL

Brittany Jaekel studies how users of cochlear implants perceive and understand aspects of language across the lifespan. She works with Dr. Matthew Goupell and Dr. Rochelle Newman as a PhD student in the Hearing and Speech Sciences department at the University of Maryland. She previously earned her MS in Speech, Language, and Hearing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her BA in Psychology and English at Northwestern University.

Dr. Kelly King

Current Position: Clinical Research Audiologist in the Audiology Unit at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIH

Dr. King recently wrote: "CCEBH played an integral role in funding a portion of my PhD work, and in advancing my training in the areas of acoustics and the biological processes of hearing. Participating in the program was one of the most rewarding aspects of my graduate education.” Dr. King's primary research interests are in the pathogenesis and manifestations of hereditary hearing and balance disorders, and the correlation of distinctive auditory and vestibular phenotypes with underlying molecular genotypes.

MAGGIE MATERN

Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Heller lab, Stanford University

Maggie Matern defended her PhD in 2019 in the Human Genetics and Genomic Medicine Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland, in the laboratory of Dr. Ronna Hertzano. The main focus of her research was the characterization of transcription factor signalling cascades that occur during cochlear development using a combination of bioinformatic and molecular techniques, as well as using both mice and zebrafish as animal models. Here research interests are understanding how hair cells normally develop, survive, and function in the inner ear.

Dr. Nora Prior

Current Position: Senior research associate in the Psychology Department at Cornell University.

Nora Prior was a postdoctoral fellow working with Drs Gregory Ball and Robert Dooling in the Department of Psychology, examining the role of sound in social interactions with conspecifics. Repeated social interactions with familiar individuals provide the basis for the development of social relationships. The diversity that exists in the phenotypes of social relationships, reflects the varied patterns of social interactions and the contexts in which these interactions occur. Understanding the diversity in social relationships, their etiologies and varied effects on individuals’ brain and behavior is a fundamental goal of biology and psychology. Deepening our understanding of diverse social relationships will have unforetold impacts on approaches to individual and community health in humans.

Dr. Maureen Shader

Current Position: Post-doctoral research fellow at the Bionics Institute in Melbourne.

Maureen Shader received her Au.D. degree from Gallaudet U. in 2013, and completed her Ph.D. degree in Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) at UMD in 2019, with co-mentors Matt Goupell and Sandra Gordon-Salant. Her Ph.D. investigated age-related differences in speech perception by cochlear-implant listeners, including the effect of CI stimulation rate and temporal-envelope modulate rate on sentence recognition. Maureen received F32 support from NIDCD during the final phase of her dissertation. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the Bionics Institute in Melbourne, working with Prof Colette McKay.

Dr. Jenny Boughman

Current Position: Professor, Zoology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Behavior, BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University.

Does sexual selection cause speciation? This long-standing but controversial question is receiving a lot of attention currently, partly because of the special role that mate choice can play in determining gene flow. Sexual selection is thought to cause reproductive isolation when male mating signals and female preferences diversify because that can lead to sexual isolation among populations. Work at the Boughman Lab investigates behavioral and ecological causes of divergence in mating traits, the genetic basis of traits involved in sexual isolation, and are using a comparative approach to evaluate the generality of early results from model systems. This highly integrative and multilevel approach has proven powerful for uncovering the processes guiding the evolution of behavior and the processes of speciation.

Dr. Micheal L. Dent

Current Position: Professor, Psychology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY 14260

Dr. Dent directs the Comparative Bioacoustics Laboratory (Dent Lab). The overall goal of the research in the Dent Lab is to investigate acoustic communication in animals. Researchers take a comparative approach, measuring hearing and vocalizations in a number of different species, including birds and mice. They carry out psychoacoustic studies of hearing in animals using operant conditioning techniques, and record sonic and ultrasonic vocalizations from their subjects in various contexts.

Grace Capshaw

Grace Capshaw is a graduate student working with Dr. Catherine Carr in the Biological Sciences program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research investigates structural variation, physiological function, and evolutionary adaptation of the inner ear in lungless salamander species. Her research aims to reveal the extra-tympanic strategies that "earless" animals use to detect airborne sound, and may provide insight into the auditory capabilities of early, atympanic tetrapod ancestors.

Adam Fishbien

Adam Fishbien studies how songbirds and parakeets perceive patterns of sounds and how their abilities compare to those of humans. He works with Dr. Robert Dooling as a PhD student in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland. He previously earned a Master's in Professional Writing at the University of Southern California and BA degrees in Philosophy and Linguistics from the University of Maryland.

Katie Von Holzen

Current Position: Akademische Rätin in German Linguistics at the Technical University of Dortmund.

Katie Von Holzen studies how infants, children, and adults begin to learn a second language at first exposure. She worked with Dr. Rochelle Newman as a postdoctoral researcher in the Hearing and Speech Sciences department at the University of Maryland. She previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Paris Descartes in France, and earned her PhD in Psychology at the Georg-August-Universität-Göttingen in Germany and her BS in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in the United States.

Katie Gwilliam

Katie is a fourth year Human Genetics, PhD student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Working in the lab of Dr. Ronna Hertzano, she studies the genetics and molecular mechanisms of inner ear development and hearing loss. More specifically, Katie researches the roles of specific transcription factors, such as the Regulatory Factor X (RFX) transcription factor family, in hair cell development and maintenance using mice and zebrafish models. She received her B.S. in Biology, with a concentration in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, and minor in dance at George Mason University.

Allie Johnson

Allie is a PhD student working in Jan Edwards’ Learning to Talk lab. She earned my MS in Speech Pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016. Her work is driven by my clinical experiences, and my research agenda requires a translational approach between the lab and the clinic. Her interests are in how young children learn speech and language when their auditory input is compromised due to signal degradation. Primary goals are to: 1) better understand the unique perceptual constraints imposed by cochlear implants; 2) relate specific auditory processing limitations to patterns observed during speech acquisition; and 3) propose new approaches to speech-language intervention to better serve this unique population of children. Allie is also interested in developing more comprehensive speech assessment tools to supplement transcription in the lab and in the clinic.

Anna Kraemer

Anna studies how inhibition regulates the auditory brainstem in barn owl. Her work focuses on characterizing response types in the superior olivary nucleus, an inhibitory nucleus in the auditory brainstem which send projections to brainstem nuclei involved in sound localization. She works with Dr. Catherine Carr as a Ph.D. student in the University of Maryland’s Neurosciences and Cognitive Sciences program. She received her B.A. in neuroscience from Knox College.

Rebecca Bieber

Rebecca studies how humans are able to perceive spoken language, and how listeners can adapt to new talkers in challenging environments. Much of her work focuses on recognition of and adaptation to non-native speech. She works with Dr. Sandra Gordon-Salant as a Ph.D. student in the University of Maryland's Hearing and Speech Science program. She received her Au.D. from the University of Maryland in 2017, and a B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Emerson College."

Julie Cohen

Julie is a Ph.D. student in the Hearing and Speech Science program and is mentored by Dr. Sandra Gordon-Salant and Dr. Douglas Brungart. Julie studies how humans are able understand speech in real-world environments. Much of her current work focuses on speech understanding benefits of familiar voices. Julie received her Au.D. from the University of Maryland in 2012, and worked as a research audiologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center prior to returning to UMD as a Ph.D. student.

Dr. Aaron Corcoran

Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Aaron Corcoran's research on bats and moths has taken him across the country (often at the Southwestern Research Station) and to Ecuador. He worked in several research labs for graduate and post-doctoral research including Dr. Joe Szewczak (Humboldt State University) Dr. William Conner (Wake Forest), the auditory neuroethology lab of Dr. Cindy Moss at the University of Maryland (now at Johns Hopkins) and Ty Hedrick at UNC Chapel Hill. He started the Sensory and Movement Ecology research lab at UC Colorado Springs in fall 2019.

Dr. Matt Winn

Current position: Assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in the department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, in Minneapolis MN.

Matt Winn directs the Listen Lab, which is aimed at understanding speech communication and what makes it difficult for people with hearing loss. At the University of Maryland, he obtained a Doctor of Audiology and a Ph.D., working with Monita Chatterjee (Hearing and Speech sciences) and Bill Idsardi (Linguistics). During graduate school, he worked as a linguist/phonetician at CASL – the Center for Advanced Study of Language, where I focused on the acoustics of Mandarin and Vietnamese speech to train Americans to communicate better while overseas. For three years he was an assistant professor at the University of Washington before relocating to Minnesota.

Dr. Meg Cychosz

Meg Cychosz is a postdoctoral researcher working with Jan Edwards and Rochelle Newman in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland. She employs computational modeling and digital signal processing to evaluate how the auditory environment interacts with speech development in children from a variety of language backgrounds, including bilingual children and children with cochlear implants. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from UC Berkeley in 2020.