Victoria joined the UB team in Spring 2024. She graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a B.A. in English Literature and SUNY Buffalo State with a M.Ed. in Exceptional Education. Prior to joining the lab, Victoria was a middle school and high school special education teacher in the Buffalo, NY area for 12 years. She is passionate about creating inclusive learning environments for students of all backgrounds and helping individuals with disabilities develop lifelong self-advocacy skills. In her free time, she enjoys reading, going to the gym, and traveling to new places.

Franchesca Arecy

PhD Student Researcher

Franchesca joined the lab in 2023. A New York native from Queens, she attended the SUNY New Paltz to obtain a BA in Communication Disorders & Spanish with a minor in Deaf Studies. She completed her Masters of Science in Speech-Language Pathology at Howard University which was packed with research experience that propelled her into a doctoral program here at UB. Her interests include assessment & intervention for at-risk children, provision of services for culturally & linguistically diverse (CLD) families, and advocacy for individuals who may experience systematic racism and oppression. 

Sonia Islam Nisha

PhD Student Researcher

Nisha joined the lab in 2023. Born and raised in Bangladesh, she studied at the University of Dhaka in Linguistics. She completed her second Master of Science in Speech Difficulties at the University of Sheffield. Before starting her PhD, Nisha worked as a faculty member at Dhaka University in the Department of Communication Disorders. As a bilingual doctoral researcher, she aims to explore how children with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds learn language and literacy skills. Her research interests include developing assessment and intervention tools and using advanced AI technologies in speech and language services for individualized education for children. 

Helena Miller

Graduate Research Assistant

Helena joined the lab in Fall 2024. Helena is a first year speech-language pathology Master's student. She is from Buffalo and completed her Speech and Hearing Sciences B.A. at the University at Buffalo in December 2023. Helena's career goal is to work as an SLP in an elementary school setting. In her free time, Helena likes to go to the gym, listen to podcasts, and try new restaurants around Buffalo.

Avery Andrews

Graduate Research Assistant

Avery joined the lab as an undergraduate volunteer in 2022. Currently, Avery works in the lab as a graduate research assistant. She is from Grand Island, NY, and received her B.A. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from UB in 2023. Avery is a second-year graduate student at UB, and will receive her Master’s in Communicative Disorders and Sciences in May of 2025. Her goal is to be a medical SLP, and work with people of all ages. In her free time, Avery enjoys spending time with her friends and family, going to the gym, and traveling new places. 

Erin Shin

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Erin joined the lab in Fall 2024. Erin is an undergraduate student majoring in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She would like to pursue a master's degree in Speech Language Pathology. She hopes to work as an SLP in both educational and health care settings, helping children. She wishes to especially work with bilingual children, as she is bilingual in English and Korean. In her free time, she likes to travel to new places, try new foods, go to the gym, watch movies, and hang out with friends.

Allison Zelazo

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Allison joined the lab in Fall 2024. Allison is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She joined the lab to gain research experience and to learn more about language comprehension. In the future, after pursing her Master’s in Speech-Language Pathology, she hopes to work in an elementary school. Allison grew up in East Amherst, New York and in her free time you will find her hanging out with her friends and family, listening to music, and reading.