Krystal L. Werfel, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is a Lab Director in the Center for Childhood Deafness, Language, and Learning at Boys Town National Research Hospital, where she also directs the Written Language Lab. Dr. Werfel has a bachelor’s degree in Child Development from the University of Tennessee, and completed her master’s in Speech-Language Pathology and her Ph.D. in Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University, where she researched the language basis of literacy in children with language disorders and children with hearing loss. Her current research is focused on identifying early predictors of literacy for children with hearing loss and designing and optimizing early intervention that may prevent later literacy difficulties. Dr. Werfel’s research has contributed to our understanding of preschool language and emergent literacy difficulties for children with hearing loss, as well as intervention modifications that are effective for this group.