Voice and Speech Rehabilitation Research Lab

07/13/2025

🎉 Another exciting highlight of the summer!

Please join me in congratulating our undergraduate research assistant, Brooklyn Leslie, on receiving the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship! 🧠🔬

Brooklyn is expanding on our previous work by studying how background noise and different types of speech tasks affect not only how we speak—but also how much mental effort it takes to communicate.

We’re so proud of Brooklyn and can’t wait to see what she discovers! 💙👏

07/12/2025

🎉 Exciting news!

Our first-year PhD student, Elisabeth Renkert , has just been awarded the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences Emerging Scientist Grant!

She'll be pilot testing a novel diagnostic protocol aimed at improving how we detect and monitor laryngeal dystonia—a challenging voice disorder that affects communication in profound ways.

We are incredibly proud of her initiative and can't wait to see where this project leads. Please join us in congratulating Ellie on this well-deserved recognition! 👏🔬🎓

03/14/2025

Exciting news from our lab—we won FIRST and SECOND place at the Kentucky Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Poster Competition! 🎉🏆

HUGE congratulations to Jennifer Yeatts, Olivia Stevens, Olivia Shields, Brooklyn Leslie, and Isabelle Cramer for their incredible work and dedication!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16DAdcfAWp/

04/13/2024

On Thursday, April 18, 2024, from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm (CST), our research assistants, Raleigh de los Reyes and Lily Carpenter, will present their research at an online conference, "A Day of Voice at the University of Illinois." This conference is held in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Iowa, and the University of Kentucky. Good luck, Raleigh and Lily!

04/11/2024

Congratulations to our research assistants, Lily Carpenter, Raleigh de los Reyes, Annie Moffitt, Olivia Stevens, and Corinne Wing, for their successful presentations at the University of Kentucky Center of Clinical Translational Science Spring Conference! The job well done!

02/16/2024

Great success at the Kentucky Speech-Language and Hearing Association Annual Convention! Our lab presented five posters. Two of them were done in collaboration with Dr. Diana Orbelo at Mayo Clinic. One of the posters, "Gargle Phonation and Water Swallow Treatment for Muscle Tension Dysphonia: An Acoustic Study" won the second place in the competition! Thank you, Dr. Orbelo for letting us be a part of your project!

11/18/2023

Congratulations to Julia and Christy on their first presentation at the American Speech-Language Hearing Association Annual Convention! They were also selected to participate in ASHA's PROGENY program. We are very proud of you!

10/06/2023

We're thrilled to share our latest research paper about Clear Speech, a technique used to improve speech intelligibility.

Speaking in noisy environments isn't just tough on your voice and ears; it's tough on the mind too. Especially with babble noise, the mental strain is much higher than when it's quiet!

Background/Objectives: The objectives of this study were to explore (a) the influence of different types of background noise and their informational content on the ability of speakers to initiate and maintain clear speech (CS), a widely utilized technique for enhancing speech intelligibility, and (b...

05/04/2023

Exciting news! Our latest paper is finally out, and we couldn't be more proud of our team's hard work. It's a fantastic example of what can be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration, bringing together experts from the University of Kentucky, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Mayo Clinic. We're especially grateful for our amazing collaborators, Dr. Diana Orbelo (Mayo Clinic), Dr. Mary Pietrowicz (UIUC), and Ms. Sara Charney (Mayo Clinic). Here's to many more multi-institutional studies in the future!

This study evaluated the feasibility of differentiating conversational and clear speech produced by individuals with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) using landma

04/27/2023

Congratulations to our research assistants on their brilliant presentations at the University of Kentucky Undergraduate Research Showcase! We are very proud of you!