Dr. Lee Evans is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Written Language Lab directed by Dr. Krystal Werfel. Dr. Evans completed his doctoral training in Developmental Psychology at the University of Connecticut under the primary mentorship of Dr. Letty Naigles. As a member of UConn’s Neurobiology of Language Program, his cross disciplinary mentor was Dr. Erika Skoe from the department of Speech, Language Hearing Sciences. His work at UConn examined the impact of neural encoding integrity and phonological, semantic, and syntactic abilities in autistic and typically developing children. At Boys Town, Dr. Evans will build on his prior work to examine the relationship between encoding integrity and language development in children with hearing loss and developmental dyslexia, as well as begin to examine the relationship between neural encoding and cortical processing of speech.

Dr. Erica Lescht, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Language in Motion Laboratory with Dr. Lisa Goffman and the Working Memory and Language Laboratory with Dr. Angela AuBuchon. She received her B.A. in Hearing and Speech Sciences and M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from University of Maryland and her Ph.D. in Communication Science and Disorders from University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Lescht’s research interests are focused on the development of, and interactions between learning, language, executive function, and speech production skills in children with communication disorders, including developmental language disorder and stuttering. 

Dr. Devon P. Major is a postdoctoral research fellow co-mentored by Dr. Monita Chatterjee, director of the Auditory Prostheses and Perception Laboratory, and Dr. Kaylah Lalonde, director of the Audiovisual Speech Processing Laboratory. She earned her Au.D. and Ph.D. in Audiology from Syracuse University, where she examined the relationship between individual differences in autistic traits and the neural stability of brainstem processing of speech and nonspeech sounds. At Boys Town, Dr. Major investigates how individual variability in hearing experience influences emotional speech perception and audiovisual integration, with a focus on individuals who listen with cochlear implants. You can view more of Dr. Major’s work here.    

Dr. Julia Nikolaeva is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Word Learning Laboratory, directed by Dr. Karla McGregor. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University. Her dissertation research characterized developmental trajectories of spoken vocabulary growth during toddlerhood and examined how these distinct pathways relate to later language abilities. Dr. Nikolaeva’s primary research interest is improving early detection of developmental language disorder (DLD). She aims to develop equitable, clinically applicable methods for identifying toddlers who may benefit from early support, informed by the lived experiences of individuals with DLD, their families, and the professionals who support them. At Boys Town, she integrates her expertise in toddler development and DLD to advance early identification practices.

Dr. Tiana Cowan is a Research Scientist in the Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning at Boys Town. Dr. Cowan completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Boys Town under the mentorship of Dr. Lori Leibold. Prior, Dr. Cowan completed her Master of Arts in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Houston and her doctoral training at Pennsylvania State University in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Language Science. Dr. Cowan's research program evaluates how language experience influences speech perception and language development, particularly in the context of bilingualism.

Dr. Jessica Mattingly completed her T32 postdoctoral fellowship in the Oral and Written Language Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Krystal Werfel. While completing her Bachelor of Arts in Speech Pathology and Audiology at Calvin University, she was involved in language and literacy research under the mentorship of Dr. Judith Vander Woude. As a trainee on the Language and Literacy grant at Vanderbilt University under the direction of Dr. Melanie Schuele, Dr. Mattingly received training on how to assess and treat reading disabilities. Additionally, while at Vanderbilt, she received her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology and completed a research thesis under Dr. Edward Conture and Dr. Ellen Kelly in the area of preschool fluency disorders. After serving pediatric clients for over a decade as a speech-language pathologist, Dr. Mattingly pursued her doctoral training at Texas Christian University in Health Sciences. Her dissertation research evaluated the connections between language, executive functioning, and movement in children with disabilities. As a T32 postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Mattingly continued this line of research, evaluating how movement can be used to enhance speech-language interventions. She is especially interested in implementation science and how to translate research into practice. Dr. Mattingly is currently serving as a pediatric speech-language pathologist while continuing to partner in research evaluating language intervention practices. You can view more regarding Dr. Mattingly’s work here.  

Dr. Brittany T. Williams completed her T32 postdoctoral fellowship in the Spatial Hearing Laboratory directed by Dr. G. Christopher Stecker. She completed her M.A. in Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz where she first investigated speech perception in complex listening situations. Dr. Williams earned her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences & Disorders and Language Science at the Pennsylvania State University where her research focused on the effect adverse listening conditions (e.g., background noise and differing spatial locations) have on speech perception. Broadly, she aims to explore how listeners are efficient and resilient in perceiving speech despite variability in the acoustic signal. Her research interests include speech perception, audiovisual speech perception, psycholinguistics, psychoacoustics, and hearing.