Rick Arenas, MA, is the programmer for the OCHL study and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.  His primary academic interest is in developmental stuttering.  In particular, he is interested in the contextual variability of stuttering.  He is currently investigating the effects of autonomic arousal on speech production, as well as how contextual fluctuations in the error monitoring system may be related to the moment or instance of stuttering.  The goal of this work is to find a biologically plausible explanation for the contextual variability of stuttering that is directly tied to current models of speech production. Prior to joining the CLRC staff, he earned a bachelor's and master's degrees in speech pathology and audiology from The University of Iowa.

Morton Christiansen, PhD, is an associate professor of Psychology and co-director of Cognitive Science at Cornell University. His research interests include acquisition, processing and evolution of language; statistical learning of sequential structure; computational models of language and statistical learning; genetics of language, neurophysiological measures (ERP) of statistical learning and language; and cognitive science/neuroscience. He earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark; a master of science degree in cognition, computing and psychology from the University of Warwick; and a doctorate in cognitive science from the Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh, U.K.

Nancy Cox , PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Human Genetics at The University of Chicago. She also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Medicine. Her research focuses on the identification and characterization of genetic variation influencing susceptibility to complex disorders. She earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Notre Dame and a doctoral degree in human genetics from Yale University.

Connie Ferguson, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and the coordinator for data collection from the three OCHL sites. Prior to this study, she served in a similar capacity in the Child Language Research Center for a longitudinal study on children's language disorders. In that study, she was responsible for refining protocols, maintaining the integrity of the administration of the protocols, and training other field examiners. Prior to joining the CLRC, she earned a master's degree in speech pathology from Central Missouri State University and worked as a speech-language pathologist in the public schools for several years.

Wendy Fick, BA, began work as a research assistant at the Child Language Research Center in 2001. Her duties include entering and verifying data, insuring data accuracy and security, and disseminating data to appropriate investigators. She earned a bachelor's degree from The University of Iowa, and prior to joining the CLRC, worked as a research assistant for the speech physiology lab and the stuttering project in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at The University of Iowa.

Bruce Gantz, MD, is Professor and Head of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and the Brian F McCabe Distinguished Chair in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and medical degrees at the UI. He also completed his medical residency in otolaryngology at the UI. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in the area of cochlear implants and has taken major leadership roles in the establishment of the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and in encouraging federal support for biomedical research.

Melody Harrison, PhD, is Co-Director of the University of North Carolina component of the OCHL study. She is a speech-language pathologist and professor in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She Master's program in speech-language pathology and specializes in teaching coursework and conducting research related to infants and young children with hearing loss and their families. Dr Harrison has served as a consultant to states regarding provision of services to children with hearing loss and their families and has lectured nationally and internationally on those topics.

Bob McMurray, PhD, has been a psychologist at the University of Iowa since 2004. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1998, and in 2004 a Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences from the University of Rochester. He studies language, development, perception and learning in normal and impaired individuals. His multi-leveled approach to this research includes collaborations and projects in theoretical linguistics (phonetics/phonology), otolaryngology (cochlear implantation), speech pathology (specific language impairment), computational modeling (neural network, statistical, and analytic approaches), cognitive neuroscience (ERPS), and of course the basic behavioral work that is the foundation of psychology.

Mary Pat Moeller, PhD, directs the Center for Childhood Deafness at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. After many years of clinical work as a rehabilitative audiologist, she obtained a Ph.D. in child language at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Her research interests include theory of mind development and word learning in children with hearing loss. She is the principal investigator for a prospective longitudinal study of spoken language development in infants with normal hearing and impaired hearing. She also is involved with colleagues at Boys Town in dissemination of information on Newborn Hearing Screening to physicians and parents. Dr. Moeller has published and lectured widely on topics related to developmental outcomes in children with hearing loss.

Jeff Murray, MD, collaborates on the genetics studies of the CLRC, investigating the genetic contribution to language acquisition. He is professor of pediatrics and biological sciences at Iowa, directing the Cooperative Human Linkage Center, a Human Genome Center, and director of the Craniofacial Anomalies Research Center in the Departments of Pediatrics, Biological Sciences, Otolaryngology, and Physiology at Iowa. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from M.I.T. and a medical degree from Tufts Medical School. Following a pediatric residency at the Boston Floating Hospital, Dr. Murray did a medical genetics fellowship at the University of Washington.

Marlea O'Brien, BA, is the program coordinator of the Child Language Research Center. She has served in this role for more than 15 years, and is the key point of contact for the various projects and activities of the CLRC. Prior to the OCHL study, she was responsible for the oversight of field research activities and staff; management of the financial and grants processes; internal and external reporting of CLRC activities; and serving as liaison for families, school personnel, and investigators. In short, she creates the best possible environment for CLRC work and staff to keep moving forward.

Julie Ostrem, MBA , is the webmaster for the OCHL project. She works with a number of academic groups on the Iowa campus, weaving websites and managing other outreach activities and educational projects. She led a project team on the development of the Voice Academy, an NIDCD-funded site for the vocal health of teachers and continues as webmaster for the website of the National Center for Voice and Speech. To do these tasks, she draws on her bachelor's degree in journalism from Iowa State University and a master's degree in business administration from The University of Iowa. She never tires of the challenge of communicating knowledge from scientific research into useful forms to those who need it on a day-to-day basis.

Marcia St. Clair, BA, is a field examiner for the OCHL research study. Prior to the OCHL study, was one of four field examiners collecting data on a longitudinal project focused on the development of language in children with and without Specific Language Impairment. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from The University of Iowa. Prior to joining the CLRC team, she worked in the public school systems in Iowa and Illinois as an elementary education teacher and reading tutor.

Elizabeth Walker, MA, CCC-SLP/A, is an audiologist on the OCHL research study, collecting data on children at the Iowa site. She is also currently a doctoral candidate in speech and hearing science at the University of Iowa. Her primary research interests are in lexical and vocal development in children who are deaf or hard of hearing, with particular interests in how word learning and infant babbling can be used to track speech and language progress in young children with cochlear implants. Previously, she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and speech and hearing science from the University of Iowa and a master's degree in communication disorders from the University of Minnesota in 2002. She is certified as a speech-language pathologist and audiologist.