The Department of Communicative Disorders is proud to present four national award winners:
Michelle R Ciucci, PhD, 2010 Recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Early Career Contributions in Research Award.
This award is given to an individual who has made significant scientific accomplishments beyond the dissertation and within five years of receiving a doctoral degree or other terminal degree.
- Ciucci, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders, Department of Surgery-Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, and a faculty member of the Neuroscience Training Program.
- She received her doctorate from the University of Arizona and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin and then in Otolaryngology at the UW.
- Her area of research interest is sensorimotor control of voice and swallowing, with an emphasis on Parkinson’s disease. Her research program is focused on the neural substrates for normal and disordered cranial motor function and how interventions affect brain and behavior.
Nadine P. Connor, PhD. - 2010 Recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Fellow Award
This award recognizes professional or scientific achievement and is given to ASHA members who have made outstanding contributions to the professions. The award is one of the highest honors that ASHA can bestow and is retained for life.
- Connor is an Associate Professor in Communicative Disorders and Surgery. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Neurophysiology in 1997.
- Her research program is focused on physiological and structural properties of cranial muscles, associated central and peripheral nervous system structures, and how these systems change with aging, diseases and disorders. Connor is exploring how these physiological and structural adaptations may influence properties of voice production, speech, and swallowing.
Ruth Litovsky, PhD. – 2010 Recipient of the Acoustical Society of America Fellow Award
This award is given to a person who has attained eminence in acoustics or who has rendered outstanding service to acoustics.
- Litovsky's research focuses on how people are able to hear in complex, noisy environments, and the contributions of the binaural auditory system (having two ears).
- The work has several main themes: 1) How we hear speech in noise (the "cocktail party" effect); 2) How we localize sounds; 3) How people with cochlear implants can operate in these conditions, and whether bilateral implants provide benefits beyond unilateral implants.
- Most of this research takes place at the Waisman Center, where she directs the Binaural Hearing and Speech Lab, working closely with children from the Waisman Center Early Childhood Progarm. She also collaborates with numerous clinics nation-wide that provide cochlear implants to children and adults.
Patricia (Trici) B. Schraeder, MS, CCC-SLP – 2010 Recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Rolland J. Van Hattum Award
This award recognizes exemplary commitment and national contributions to speech-language pathology services in schools.
- Schraeder received her B.A. and M.S. degrees from UW-Madison and was a school-based speech-language pathologist for 14 years. She has worked at UW-Madison since 1989, currently as Faculty Associate.
- She serves as an editorial consultant for the Journal of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools and was a past WSHA VP of School Services.
- Schraeder was the first ASHA State Education Advocacy Leader; served on the ASHA committee that created the position statement, technical report, guidelines, implementation guide, and teleweb/CD seminar related to a workload analysis approach to caseload standards in schools; was chair of the ASHA committee that created the professional performance review process for school-based speech-language pathologists.
- She has served on numerous Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction work groups; is the author of a text book; and has been an invited speaker at numerous state and national professional conferences.