November 2024
Awards & Grants
Teresa Girolamo and new lab member Abigail (Abby) Asare received a Weber Honors College Research Fellowship! This awards program matches undergraduate honors students with faculty to gain valuable experience as volunteer research assistants. Abby will support a participatory project with campus and community partners on the experiences of autistic adults!
Student News
Ainsley Jennieve Perez was selected for an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association MSLP award! This prestigious award provides leadership programming to 40 undergraduate senior and graduate students in communication sciences and disorders. In this year’s class, Ainsley is just 1 of 4 undergraduate awardees. Along with her other ASHA awards and honors, it is impressive that this is Ainsley’s first-ever Convention. Congratulations, Ainsley!
October 2024
Student News
Artah Yamin was selected to be a Student Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Graduate Mentor! Artah will serve as an ambassador to the College of Health & Human Services, be a peer mentor for SURP students, and represent CHHS students on the Student Research Committee. Congratulations, Artah!
Dissemination
Teresa Girolamo visited Vanderbilt Hearing & Speech Sciences as part of their October seminar series to share some of the lab’s work and new projects. An unexpected perk was visiting labs on Music Row!
September 2024
Dissemination
Teresa Girolamo, lab alumna Alicia Escobedo & community partner Kyle Greene-Pendelton are presenting at the 2024 Stanford Neurodiversity Summit, focusing on climate issues, community engagement, and initiatives to make post-secondary environments accessible for all!
August 2024
Awards & Grants
Teresa Girolamo and community partner Mentoring Autistic Minds were awarded the inaugural Community Scholar Grant from Drexel University’s Autism Transitions Research Project. Our project will examine the experiences of post-secondary racially and ethnically minoritized autistic students in order to identify research and policy priorities.
Student News
A student first-authored ASHA presentation, “Unmet Service Needs and Barriers in Minoritized Autistic Adolescents and Adults”, was designated as an ASHA Convention Visionary Session, which is awarded to just 150 of 3,300 (4.5%) sessions! Congratulations to Ainsley Jennieve Perez, Brianna Ángel, Makenna Bailey & Alicia Escobedo!
Ainsley Jennieve Perez and Brianna Ángel were selected to participate in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s PROmoting the next GENeration of Researchers (PROGENY) Program and received awards for being among the 10 PROGENY participants with the top-rated posters!
Students in the lab & NSSLHA, including President Brianna Ángel, received two College of Health & Human Services Instructionally Related Activities Awards to support student-led interprofessional programming with faculty mentors Teresa Girolamo and Taylor Hye! Students will present and connect with others at the ASHA Convention to build a learning network for health equity, focusing on cultural and linguistic diversity in autism. Students will also host a community-engaged speaker series on autism, health equity, and neurodiversity.
July 2024
Awards & Grants
Teresa Girolamo received a Clinical Practice Research Institute Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to prepare and submit a grant proposal with mentorship from senior experts across disciplines.
Student News
Ainsley Jennieve Perez and Brianna Ángel, SLHS undergraduate students, had accepted first-author ASHA presentations, with student co-authors Makenna Bailey, Noa DeBasc, and mentorship from Dra. Alicia Escobedo! Ainsley and Brianna also received SDSU CHHS Travel Awards to present their work. Congratulations, Ainsley and Brianna!
Edith Urbano-Ixta, incoming AuD student, received an NIDCD-funded ASHA Research Mentoring-Pair Travel Award (RMPTA) with Teresa Girolamo to attend this year’s research symposium at the ASHA Convention on genetics in communication sciences & disorders. She is the third SDSU student – and first non-PhD student – since 2018 to receive RMPTA. Congratulations, Edith!
June 2024
Student News
Ainsley Jennieze Perez received a CSU STEM-NET Summer Student Research Award to conduct research over the summer on language variation in autistic adolescents and adults. Fewer than 10 students receive this CSU-wide award each year. Congratulations, Ainsley!
Community Engagement
The lab hosted a community workshop with our partner Mentoring Autistic Minds. We appreciated learning together about what is important to folks in the community. It also helped us develop new ways to work together on projects to support neurodiversity in San Diego and beyond!
Interprofessional Connection
Teresa Girolamo & community partner Kyle Greene-Pendelton spoke with education and healthcare practitioners who are SDSU Project MAINSAIL alumni about neurodiversity in clinical practice. Project MAINSAIL was an interdisciplinary program funded by the Department of Education Office of Special Education Preparation to prepare early childhood special educators and speech-language pathologists to support bilingual autistic children.
May 2024
Community Engagement
Teresa Girolamo was featured on Spectrum Spotlight, the Mentoring Autistic Minds podcast, to talk about the experiences of racially and ethnically minoritized autistic individuals in adulthood. Tune in here.
Interprofessional Connection
Our lab presented on social drivers of health in the transition to adulthood of autistic individuals to multidisciplinary health professionals via the Autism Research & Practice Continuing Medical Education Seminar at UC San Diego/Rady Children’s Hospital. We enjoyed learning from healthcare practitioners about their clinical practice needs, priorities, and experiences!
April 2024
Interprofessional Connection
Our lab presented a workshop series to campus community workers in partnership with University Police Department! Many thanks to campus professionals for sharing their insight and priorities for research.
Teresa Girolamo spoke to multidisciplinary healthcare practitioners, self-advocates, and family members at San Diego LEND’s Culturally Responsive Care Seminar Series about culturally partnered assessment development for self-determination.
Student News
Ainsley Jennieve Perez and Brianna Ángel were accepted as San Diego Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Other Related Disabilities (LEND) mid-term trainees, a unique, interdisciplinary leadership training program funded by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Congratulations, Ainsley & Brianna!
February 2024
Interprofessional Connection
Our lab presented a workshop series to faculty and staff across campus on neurodiversity in the classroom in partnership with SDSU Center for Inclusive Excellence. Many thanks to Lott Hill and Jennifer Imazeki for inviting us and getting a learning group going to build capacity across campus for neurodiversity-affirming instruction, mentorship, and collaboration!
March 2023
Community Engagement
Teresa Girolamo was featured on the Moments of Joy podcast to talk about systematic exclusion of racially and ethnically minoritized individuals from autism research. Tune in here, and follow Camille here.