I believe that we as scholars must foster our students’ personal wellbeing to enable their academic success. Fulfilling this mission requires a willingness to understand and adapt to each human being’s unique circumstances and needs. As the manager of my PhD mentor’s lab, I organized and ran regular weekly lab meetings, which went virtual halfway through the Spring 2020 semester. Our project updates quickly evolved into individual check-ins with each member of the lab. We created opportunities to express empathy and care, which fostered a positive environment for discussions of scientific research. Within our supportive learning community, we grew our awareness and understanding of diverse ways of being human.
I apply lessons from my research on different ways that people communicate to my teaching by trying to anticipate what supports might help my students to succeed in the classroom or the lab. I proactively seek information about universal design and accessibility from the disability community. I seek information about cultural sensitivity and respect from Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. I am working to unlearn racism and ableism so I can be a better teacher to all my students.
Making information and communication accessible to everyone is core to my identity as an educator of future SLPs. I want to teach pre-service clinicians how to think flexibly and develop creative solutions for people who need communication supports. As an instructor, I infuse my lectures with real-life clinical stories that capture the complexity of human communication and professional responsibility. Beyond lecture, my students gain hands-on practice with case-based learning activities, developing real materials and goals for hypothetical communicators.
It is of crucial importance to me to teach pre-service clinicians how to access the best available information. Our evidence base must include not only peer-reviewed research, but also input from the communities we serve. Communication science professionals must actively engage with people who experience communication disabilities. We have an ethical responsibility to use treatment methods and design research studies that align with the expressed needs and preferences of the people who are affected by our work. I want to teach novice SLPs and researchers how to find information that is produced by disabled people themselves, so that future generations of clinicians and scientists can build stronger alliances with the people whose communication we support.
Undergraduate Coursework
SPPA 215: Child Language Development. Fall 2022, Towson University.
CSD 451: Introduction to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Fall 2019, Penn State.
Graduate Coursework
SPPA 615: Autism for SLP. Spring 2023, Towson University.
SPPA 705: Professional Issues. Spring 2023, Towson University.
Graduate Student Clinical Practica
Diagnostic team, since Fall 2022, Towson University.
Individual externship supervision in a special education setting, 2016-2018
University of Pittsburgh, Edinboro University, and California University of Pennsylvania