Prospective Graduate Students
I will be considering applications for doctoral students to begin Fall ’25 in the Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders (JDP-LCD). You can read more about what I am looking for in applications below. I also suggest reading about current lab projects, publications, and my mentoring statement.
Current research: We study communication in autistic youth and adults. This includes language, communicative feedback, and linguistic processing. Additional interests are understanding environmental influences on communication development and improving the methods we use to work with health disparity populations. We collaborate with other researchers who study neurodivergent youth and adults, including those who are minimally speaking. To conduct this work, we focus on behavioral methods, including clinical assessment and psycholinguistics, and fNIRS.
How I Evaluate Applicants: I evaluate prospective graduate students holistically. That is, I consider all the ways in which applicants’ prior experience and interests demonstrate excellence and a strong likelihood to succeed in the graduate program and in my lab. Specifically:
- I read personal statements carefully, given the questions that applicants are interested in studying, and look for individuals whose ideas about research questions are a strong match to my own interests, skill set, and knowledge base. I also look for skills that align with our current projects, as that is what will enable the work to get done.
- I am unlikely to admit a student who has not previously worked with autistic youth or adults (ideally in a research setting) or who does not have experience in one or more areas, including: behavioral coding, clinical assessment, linguistics (syntax), systematic review and meta-analysis, secondary data analysis, fNIRS or related methods, and programming (Python, R, etc.). The only way to know if you like working with auttistic youth and adults in these areas is if you have done it before!
Lab Postbac or Postdoc
I will also be considering applications for a post-baccalaureate lab manager and/or postdoctoral fellow on a rolling basis. Both roles require excellent time management and problem solving skills, as well as the ability to work efficiently and independently on project tasks. Please reach out by email if interested.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
The Brain, Environment & Language Lab generally has a few openings for new undergraduate students to join the lab each year. We encourage undergraduates to be actively involved in the intellectual life of the lab, including biweekly lab meetings during fall and spring to review data, plan studies, etc. We will begin processing applications to join the lab for Spring 2025 & Summer 2025 in December 2025. You can complete this form to indicate interest.