Research Assistants
Mahnaz Ahmadi
Mahnaz Ahmadi is a fourth year Ph.D. student in audiology supervised by Professor Lawrence Feth. Ms. Ahmadi is collaborating with the research group at SPA Labs under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz in a study of cross-generational sound change in American English, assisting in acoustic data analysis. She is also a teaching assistant for undergraduate and graduate courses. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in audiology from Iran and Tehran Medical Sciences Universities, respectively. Ms. Ahmadi's areas of interest center on neural processing, auditory selective attention, and speech perception. Her past research projects included designing an auditory perception test for hearing impaired preschool children in Farsi/Persian and contralateral suppression of otoacoustic emissions.

Contact: ahmadi.6ATosu.edu 		  


Chiung-Yun Chang
Chiung-Yun Chang is a Ph.D. candidate in speech science. Ms. Chang received her conjoint Bachelor's degrees in Economics (with Honors) and Spanish from University of Auckland in New Zealand. With Graduate Teaching Assistantship she came to The Ohio State University for graduate studies in Economics and later in Foreign & Second Language Education. She then received dual Master's degrees in these two fields. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. study in the Department of Speech and Haring Science under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. Her Ph.D. dissertation project investigates time course of tone perception in Mandarin Chinese in listeners from both mainland China and Taiwan. She is also investigating issues in auditory spectral integration, working on the spectral center of gravity effect in static and dynamic speech signals. Her research interests include speech perception, acoustic phonetics, and second language learning.

Contact: chang.533ATosu.edu 		  


Victoria Cook
Victoria Cook is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Linguistics and Speech and Hearing Science at The Ohio State University. She is currently working on her B.A. Honors Thesis in SPA Labs under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. The project investigates speech intelligibility in multi-talker babble by varying dialect in the babble as a masker. Ms. Cook also works as a research assistant on projects involving sociolinguistics under the supervision of Kathryn Campbell-Kibler and Cynthia Clopper in the Department of Linguistics.

Contact: Vicki.lc@gmail.com 		  


Lauren Garea
Lauren Garea is a fourth year undergraduate student at The Ohio State University majoring in Speech and Hearing Science with a minor Disability Studies. She is currently working on her Bachelor's honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. Her thesis investigates cross-dialectal and cross-generational effects on vowel perception. After graduation in 2009, Ms. Garea plans to continue her research and pursue her interest in Speech and Hearing Science as a graduate student.

Contact: garea.1@osu.edu 		  


Anne Hoffmann
Anne Hoffman is a Ph.D. student in speech science in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at Ohio State. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in French from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was also awarded a National Merit Scholarship. She then received a Master's degree in French Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and in August 2008 completed her Master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology at The Ohio State University. Ms. Hoffmann works in SPA Labs under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz, assisting in acoustic data analysis and in analysis of phonological processes of second language acquisition. Her research interests include atypical language acquisition in children and adults.

Contact: hoffmann.255ATosu.edu 		  


Yolanda F. Holt
Yolanda Holt is a third year Ph.D. student in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science. She completed her B.S. degree in Political Science at Western Carolina University, and her M.Ed. degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders at North Carolina Central University. Ms. Holt is a licensed speech-language pathologist. She practiced as an SLP in North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio in educational, clinical, and medical settings for 9 years before entering the Ph.D. program at Ohio State. Ms. Holt is interested in researching the relationship between phonetics, phonology and literacy; her current research investigates dialectal vowel characteristics in communities in North Carolina. Her work is supported by an NIH Predoctoral Research Fellowship grant F31 DC009105.

Contact: holt.174ATosu.edu 		  


Janaye Matteson Houghton
Janaye Matteson Houghton, MS, CCC, SLP is a Speech/Language Pathologist and Preschool Coordinator for Exceptional Children for Jackson County Schools in Sylva, North Carolina and part-time Clinical Supervisor with Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. She is a Lead Speech Pathologist with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Advisory Group. Ms. Houghton is a research associate in SPA Labs working on the Western North Carolina site for the project Cross-generational Sound Change in American English. She is involved in data collection for the perception and production studies conducted in SPA Labs. Her other responsibilities include developing community relations and cultivate local heritage by documenting the development of regional dialect variation.

Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University 		  


Ting-Fen Lin
Ting-fen Lin is a M. A. student in speech-language pathology in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at Ohio State. She studied Western Languages and Literature with a focus on English at the National University of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. She received her B.A. there, and worked as a research assistant for a project funded by the National Science Council, analyzing acoustic data of Taiwanese spontaneous speech. Ms. Lin works in SPA Labs as a Graduate Research Assistant for the project "Cross-generational sound change in American English" under the supervision of Dr. Ewa Jacewicz.

Contact: 		  


Amy Loscko
Amy Loscko is a fourth year undergraduate student at The Ohio State University completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Linguistics and a minor in Speech and Hearing Science. Fall quarter 2008 marks the beginning of her Bachelor's honors thesis work in SPA Labs under the direction of Dr. Robert Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. She will contribute to research in the area of second language properties, specifically the acquisition of English fricative consonants by Korean speakers. Upon completion of her undergraduate studies she plans to pursue a Master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology.

Contact: Loscko.7@osu.edu 		  


Samantha Lyle
Samantha Lyle is a first year M.A. Student in Speech-Language Pathology. Ms. Lyle graduated cum laude with research distinction from The Ohio State University in 2008, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Hearing Science. She became interested in research in speech science after completing her Bachelor's honors thesis in SPA Labs under the supervision of Dr. Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz in the 2007-2008 academic year. Her thesis investigated dialectal variations in stop consonant productions. Ms. Lyle is currently a recipient of a scholarship from the Rohovsky Family Foundation.

Contact: 		  


Julia Sammet
Julia Sammet is a first year M.A. student in Speech-Language Pathology in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics with a minor in Speech and Hearing Science from The Ohio State University in 2007. Ms. Sammet works in SPA Labs assisting in data analysis for the project Markedness and learnability in second language phonology under the supervision of Dr. Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. She is a recipient of a scholarship from the Rohovsky Family Foundation.

Contact: julia.sammet@gmail.com 		  


Leigh Smitley
Leigh Smitley is a second year Ph.D. student in speech science in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at Ohio State. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology and Master's degree in Speech Pathology from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. Ms. Smitley works in SPA Labs as a graduate research assistant and lab coordinator under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. Her research interests include speech perception with regard to dialects and sociolinguistics. She is currently researching the variation in the production of / ai / diphthong among children in North Carolina.

Contact: smitley.13@osu.edu 		  


Lisa Wackler
Lisa Wackler is a second year Au.D. student in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science. She completed her B.A. degree in Speech and Hearing Science at Ohio State before entering the Au.D. program in 2007. Ms. Wackler works in SPA Labs under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox and Dr. Ewa Jacewicz. She became interested in assisting research in SPA Labs after completing her B.A. senior Honors Thesis under the supervision of Professor Robert A. Fox in 2006-2007. Her research interests include speech perception and focus on spectral integration phenomena such as center of gravity effects, and she is increasingly interested in studying audiologic rehabilitation as hearing loss continues to affect the lives of her family members.

Contact: wackler.4ATosu.edu