Amanda Owen, Ph.D., Director
 Amanda Owen When it was time to pick a major in college, I was more than a little bit stressed out because I didn't really know what I wanted to do and deadlines were fast approaching. I knew that I liked foreign languages (I had taken German and Spanish continuously since 7th grade). I didn't think that jobs like an interpreter was for me because they involved too much travel and would make having a family difficult. I also didn't want to be a translator (of books) because I thought it involved too much time by yourself working with books and dictionaries and not enough people interaction. I was talking this over with a friend and she suggested that I consider Speech Language Pathology. My first reaction was Speech Path-what? I had never heard of the field. She described it to me based on the career of a family friend who was a school speech pathologist. I signed up for an introductory class and I was hooked. |
Doctoral Student
 Hugo Guo a PhD candidate in this department and has been working with Dr. Owen on his dissertation. Hugo's research focuses on grammatical development in typical and atypical populations (e.g., children with specific language impairment and children with hearing impairment). In his free time, he likes to go running (and loves free food, which is why he has to run everyday!).
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Master's Students 
Haley Ellis is a graduate student pursuing a master's degree in speech language pathology. Before moving to Iowa, she completed her bachelor's degree in Teaching Spanish and ESL at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and spent several years working at a Montessori school in Chicago. Hayley is interested in the differences between language acquisition in typical children and children with specific language impairment (SLI). |
 Melanie Green is a graduate student in the speech-language pathology program. She has a bachelor's degree in Communication Disorders from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. She is working on a master's thesis about the factors that influence children's past tense production. |
 Theresa Prisco is a master's student in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology and a TA in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She has a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Spanish from The University of Iowa. She is working on her master's thesis on the development of tense and aspect in Spanish. |
Undergraduate Students
 Laura Bohnenkamp is a senior speech and hearing science major in the undergraduate program at the University of Iowa. She hopes to go to graduate school for speech language pathology next fall. Her future clinical interests include working on language acquisition in children with developmental language disabilities and children with SLI.
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 Jenna DeVary
is a junior in the undergraduate program of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She plans to attend graduate school in either Iowa, Oregon or Colorado after graduating from the U of I next spring. Future clinical interests include working with children who have specific language impairment (SLI). She is excited to learn new skills while working in the research lab.
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 Keegan Koehlinger is a sophomore Speech and Hearing Science Major in the undergraduate program at the University of Iowa. She is very excited to be joining the Grammar Acquisition Lab and is looking forward to learning more about clinical research. |
 Tessa Pollack is a freshman Communication Sciences and Disorders major in the undergraduate program at the University of Iowa. She looks forward to learning more about Speech Language Pathology over the next few years, and hopes to eventually attend Iowa's graduate program. |
Stephanie Leeper (not pictured) is a senior undergraduate majoring in speech pathology. She is also studying psychology for a minor. In the lab, she is currently working on her honors thesis. This is looking at how children attach meaning to a novel word order.
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