Students Preparing for Academic and Research Careers (SPARC) Award Recipients
The SPARC Award is offered as part of ASHA's Strategic Objective to Increase Research Commitment. The goal of SPARC is to foster students' interest in the pursuit of PhD education and careers in academia in order to fill faculty/researcher vacancies in communication sciences and disorders (CSD). It allows students to prepare for successful PhD education and exciting careers in research and teaching. The SPARC Award gives students an opportunity to participate in teaching and research with guidance from a mentor and travel to enhance teaching and research exposure.
2012 SPARC Recipients
Erin Archibald, Northeastern University
Primary Mentor: Rupal Patel
Teaching Activity: Assist with course materials, draft test question and implement video tutorials on acoustic analysis
Research Interest: Prososdic control in congenital dysarthria
Susan Baughman, University of Maryland–College Park
Primary Mentor: Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah
Teaching Activity: Participate in syllabus development, develop homework assignments and grading rubric, plan and conduct hands on brain anatomy lab
Research Interest: Executive functions in monolingual and bilingual persons with aphasia
(PWA)
Devon Brunson, University of Maryland
Primary Mentor: Rochelle Newman
Teaching Activity: Create lectures, exam questions and homework for psycholinguistics class; mentor high school students interested in research lab experience
Research Interest: Maternal use of language and language outcomes in children
Caitlin Cummings, The Ohio State University
Primary Mentor: Rebecca McCauley
Teaching Activity: Guest lecture and lead a presentation 22qDS deletion syndrome
Research Interest: Prosodic variation on velopharyngeal function in children with
22q11.2 deletion syndrome
Kevin Cunningham, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
Primary Mentor: Katarina Haley
Teaching Activity: Develop online case study modules for Adult Communication Disorders class
Research Interest: Distortion errors in apraxia of speech (AOS)
Maria Josefina Fernandez, George Washington University
Primary Mentor: Cynthia Core
Teaching Activity: Lead a two-part lecture on bilingual issues in language development and assessment
Research Interest: Phonetic qualities of non-native English parents (from native Spanish-speaking parents) communicating with bilingual children
Carrie Anderson Kenny, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Primary Mentor: Karen Hux
Teaching Activity: Participate in course on teaching techniques for college level students
Research Interest: Semantic categorization skills in TBI and its impact on AAC design
Tristan Mahr, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Primary Mentor: Jan Edwards
Teaching Activity: Develop a lecture on prosody supported with online exercises
Research Interest: Speech-sound discrimination in children with autism spectrum disorders
Megan McKenna, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Primary Mentor: Pamela Hadley
Teaching Activity: Attend workshops at the Center for Teaching Excellence, mentor undergraduates
Research Activity: Developmental expectations for sentence diversity in toddlers
Jessie Shives Patterson, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Primary Mentor: Julie Honaker
Teaching Activity: Develop course materials and guest lecture on clinical decision analysis and EBP
Research Interest: Sports-related concussion and vestibular testing
Previous SPARC Recipients
2011 Recipients
2010 Recipients
2009 Recipients
2008 Recipients
2007 Recipients
2006 Recipients
2005 Recipients
2004 Recipients