Our Team

Our Research Team, led by Dr. Malandraki, currently includes a Research Associate, a doctoral student, a co-mentored doctoral student, a post-doctoral collaborator, a MS graduate student, and multiple collaborators within and outside the University. Several undergraduate students per semester are also involved in our research projects through Undergraduate Research credit hours (learn more here).

Research Associate

HHS Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences research associate Barbara Brown, Momentum Maker. Purdue Stuttering Project. (Mark Simons / Purdue University)

Barbara Brown, MS, CCC-SLP

brownb@purdue.edu 

Research Associate

Short Bio:

Barbara Brown is a certified speech-language pathologist with extensive clinical experience in addition to serving as the project coordinator for NIH-funded grants awarded to Purdue faculty in the areas of the physiology of stuttering, motor speech development, and grammatical morphology in children with specific language impairment. Barbara currently co-teaches the Stuttering course and her interests include evidence-based practice and treatment outcomes in patients with communication and swallowing disorders.

Research Assistants

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Rachel Hahn Arkenberg, MS, CCC-SLP

hahnr@purdue.edu

Doctoral Student

Research interests:

  • Investigating and documenting normal central and peripheral neurophysiology of pediatric swallowing and speech
  • Developing evidence-based evaluation and treatment techniques for pediatric dysphagia
  • Using a dynamic systems approach to study the development of feeding and swallowing in context of speech, culture, and general motor development
Shie

Shie Kantor, MM, MA, CCC-SLP

skantor@purdue.edu

Doctoral Student (Major Advisor: Dr. Sivasankar)

Research/clinical interests

  • Investigating and documenting age-related laryngeal changes affecting voice and swallowing function
Anny

Ann Alvar, PhD

aalvar@purdue.edu

Post-Doctoral Collaborator 

Research/clinical interests

  • The use of resting state fMRI and structural MRIs to investigate neurophysiology and neuroplasticity of speech and swallowing in health and disease (i.e. Parkinson's disease and Cerebral Palsy)
  • The interaction between subsystems that support speech and swallowing during dual tasks with a particular focus on respiratory kinematics
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Jennine Bryan

bryan14@purdue.edu

Graduate Student 

Involved in lab projects including:

  • Investigating mealtime behaviors and eating efficiency of children with cerebral palsy and typically developing children
  • Exploring the speech intelligibility of children with cerebral palsy for adult listeners
  • Providing media support for various lab projects

Interested in Joining our Dream Team? 

If you are a graduate student or a prospective doctoral student and you have an interest in joining our team, please send an email and your CV directly to Dr. Malandraki at malandraki@purdue.edu.

If you are an undergraduate student and are interested in learning more about research and how to participate in our lab, please complete this application (google doc). If we have a vacancy in the lab and you qualify, we will contact you! Thank you for your interest.

Alumni

  • Samantha Mitchell, MS, CFY-SLP
    • Undergraduate and Graduate research assistant (2017-2021)
    • Samantha is now completing her CFY at Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio.
  • Cagla Kantarcigil, MS, PhD
    • PhD student (2014-2019)
    • Cagla is now a post-doctoral research fellow at Northwestern University in Chicago.
  • Anumitha Venkatraman, MS
    • Graduate research assistant (2018-2019)
    • Anumitha is now completing her PhD with Dr. Sivasankar.
  • Paige Cornille, MS, CCC-SLP
    • Graduate research assistant (2018-2019)
    • Paige is now working at Children's Therapy Corner in Michigan.
  • Robert B. Fujiki, PhD
    • Graduate research assistant (2016-2017)
    • Robert is now completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  • Valerie Steinhauser, MS, CCC-SLP
    • Graduate research assistant (2016-2017)
    • Val is now an SLP at the Jewish Child and Family Services in Chicago, IL.
  • Natalie Tomerlin, MS, CCC-SLP
    • Graduate research assistant (2016-2017)
    • Natalie is now a Clinical Assistant Professor at Northwestern University.
  • Abby Oliver, MS, CCC-SLP
    • Undergraduate research assistant (2014-2017)
    • Abby is now an SLP at a medical setting.
  • Naomi (Mia) Dreyer, MS, CCC-SLP
    • Graduate research assistant (2014-2016)
    • Mia is now an SLP in Indiana.
  • Lucia Figueiredo-Mourao, PhD
    • Post-Doctoral Researcher (2014-2016)
    • Lucia is a Professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil.
  • Pratik Kashyap, BS
    • Graduate research assistant (2015-2016)
    • Pratik is a PhD student at the school of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue.
  • Kausar Abbas, PhD
    • Graduate research assistant (2015)
    • Kausar is now a faculty member at the University of Management and Technology in his home country, Pakistan.

Research Collaborators