Executive Board
Dr. Ingo Titze, educated as a physicist (Ph.D.) and engineer (M.S.E.E.), has applied his scientific knowledge to a lifelong love of clinical voice and vocal music. His research interests include biomechanics of human tissues, acoustic phonetics, speech science, voice disorders, professional voice, music acoustics, and the computer simulation of voice. He is the father of vocology, a specialty in speech-language pathology. He defined the word as “the science and practice of voice habilitation.”
Ron Scherer, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Bowling Green State University, teaches voice disorders and voice and speech science courses. His research interests include the physiology, mechanics, and acoustics of basic, abnormal, and performance sound production, and the methodologies involved in such research. He was Senior Scientist at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts voice laboratories and taught in the DCPA’s theatre voice and speech trainers program. In 2005 he was a Research Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Cincinnati. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, a master’s degree from Indiana University in speech-language pathology, a B.S. degree in mathematics, and also spent two years as a music major at Indiana University. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the American Speech Language Hearing Association.
Brad Story is a Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from the University of Northern Iowa, Dr. Story was employed in industry as an acoustics engineer where he developed computer models and instrumentation systems for designing and measuring the performance of mufflers. Odd as it may seem, Dr. Story’s work with mufflers (or acoustic filters as he prefers to call them) led him to pursue a doctoral degree in Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Iowa. In his post-doctoral work he has been employed as a Research Scientist at the University of Iowa and most recently at the Wilbur James Gould Voice Center in Denver, Colorado.
Anil Palaparthi, Ph.D., is a data scientist for the Utah Center for Vocology and serves as a secretary for the National Center for Voice and Speech. In March 2021, he completed the Ph.D. in Bioengineering with a dissertation titled “Computational motor learning and control of vocal source for voice production.” His previous degrees include a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Andhra University, India. In 2020, he was elevated to Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Liz Johnson holds a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from Belmont University, a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology and Mental Health Work from the University of Illinois, and a Certificate in Vocology through the University of Utah and the NCVS. She earned the Recognized Vocologist (PAVA-RV) designation from the Pan American Vocology Association in 2023. In addition to her primary work as a Vocologist (Voice Instructor), she regularly performs jazz, composes, and records. She has held teaching positions at Vanderbilt, Belmont, and Trevecca Universities, and now owns a private teaching practice in Nashville, TN. Liz serves on the Ethics Committee for the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA) and as both the Certificate Program Coordinator and teaching faculty for Nashville Jazz Workshop (NJW).
Advisory Board
Tobias Riede is currently an Associate Professor of Physiology at Midwestern University and formerly a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Utah. He conducts research on the physiology and functional morphology of sound production in vertebrates. Comparative analysis of living animals provides a useful tool for the understanding of the mechanisms of vocal communication, including humans and the evolution of human speech. Dr. Riede holds a DVM from Free University in Berlin and a Ph.D from Humboldt University.
Eric Hunter serves as the chairperson/DEO of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Iowa, as well as Harriet B. and Harold S. Brady Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences. He previously served as the Senior Associate Dean for Research in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and the Director of the Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research (a joint research initiative of the College of Engineering, College of Nursing, and the College of Communication Arts & Sciences), as well as an MSU Foundation professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders.
Dr. Jiang is Director of International Collaborative Research and Translational Research for the Department of Surgery, and he is Director of the Otolaryngic Biomedical Engineering Research Center and the Laryngeal Physiology Lab. He has published more than 230 original manuscripts in the area of voice measurement and disorders, and serves on the editorial boards for The Laryngoscope, Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology, and Journal of Voice. He has served on Study Sections for the Center for Scientific Review of NIH since 1998, and he is a 2001 recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
The son of an engineer, Dr. Mau graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in biochemistry, then earned a Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He attended Harvard Medical School for his M.D., then returned to UCSF for residency training in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, winning three research prizes. After residency, Dr. Mau completed a fellowship at Vanderbilt University in laryngology and care of the professional voice. He joined UT Southwestern in 2008 as its first full-time voice specialist. In 2010, Dr. Mau received a Young Faculty/Practitioner Award from the American Laryngological Association.
Robin Samlan earned her PhD at The University of Arizona and was a postdoctoral scholar in the Voice Perception Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to her doctoral work, she was a speech-language pathologist at the Johns Hopkins University and University of Wisconsin, where she specialized in disorders associated with the voice and airway, head and neck cancer, and cleft palate. Dr. Samlan is the director of the Voice Research Laboratory. The aim of her work is to improve voice evaluation and therapy paradigms for breathy dysphonia.
Dr. Zhaoyan Zhang is a distinguished professor of head and neck surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the recipient of the Quintana Research from the Voice Foundation and a Fellow at the Acoustical Society of America. He has published over 50 papers in his career and is a leading expert in voice and speech science research.
Karin Titze Cox, MA CCC/SLP, Vocologist/Voice Clinic Director received her MA-vocology track certificate from the University of Iowa. At Iowa she was mentored by Dr. Kitty Verdolini, Dr. Linda Carrol and Dr. Ingo Titze. Her undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in Communication Disorders also included a minor in music and vocal performance with Dr. Rebecca Wilberg and summer work with Dr. Steven Gray’s clinic at the University of Utah. Licensed in Utah and California, she’s currently Voice Clinic Director of ENT Specialists and enjoys training and collaborating with future vocologists. She also educates various outside organizations and is involved in research at the National Center of Voice and Speech while assisting as an instructor of the Stroboscopy portion of the Summer Vocology Institute.
Dr. Luc Mongeau is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University since 2006. He obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Graduate Program in Acoustics at the Pennsylvania State University in 1991. He then was a postdoctoral researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, before joining the faculty of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University in 1993. His research has spanned a variety of topics related to acoustics, including wind noise in road vehicles, thermoacoustic refrigeration, aeroacoustics of flight vehicles, passive and active noise and vibration control, combustion noise, flow- and friction induced vibrations, turbomachinery noise, and the aerodynamics and biomechanics of voice production.
Professor Döllinger graduated in 2000 at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany) with a Master in Mathematics. In 2002 he finished his PhD studies on optimizing a biomechanical model on laryngeal dynamics. From 2003 – 2005 he held a post-doc position at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Between 2005 and 2008 he was senior scientist at the Divison for Phonaitrics and Pediatric Audiology at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. Since June 2008 he is professor for “Computational Medicine” at FAU.
Director of Research at the CNRS, choirmaster and singer, Nathalie HENRICH BERNARDONI is a scientist passionate about the human voice in all its forms of expression. Her research focuses on the experimental and clinical phonetic description of speech and singing, on the physiological and physical characterization of various vocal techniques (lyrical singing, contemporary music, world songs), on the management of vocal effort in speech and singing, as well as the development and improvement of non-invasive experimental techniques for analyzing the human voice.
Dr. Zañartu is interested in the development of digital signal processing, system modeling, and biomedical engineering tools that involve speech, audio, and acoustics. His recent research efforts have revolved around developing quantitative models that describe nonlinear effects in human speech production, and applying these physiological descriptions for the development of communication and clinical technologies. He holds a BS degree in Acoustical Engineering, and MS and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
With a background in computer programming, undergraduate degrees in information systems and computer science, as well as a master’s degree in business administration and years of management experience, Brandon has a unique set of skills that have allowed me the opportunity to see across organizational boundaries and solve complex problems and deliver great products.
Affiliate Members
