Members of the Laboratory

Richard Hurtig, PhD, Principal Investigator richard-hurtig@uiowa.edu
Richard Hurtig directs the Psychology of Language Lab. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from New York University and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Hurtig served as chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders for nine years. He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in Psycholinguistics as well as a course on Designing Assistive Devices. His research interests lie in the areas of speech perception and cognitive neuroscience as well as the development of assistive technologies.

Carolyn Brown, PhD cjbrown@southslope.net
Carolyn Brown is the creator of the Breakthrough to Literacy literacy program, a comprehensive computer assisted reading program designed to increase student early-literacy skills. Her contribution to the Climbers project includes experimental design and analysis of data relating to child literacy.

Nancy Ewald Jackson, PhD nancy-jackson@uiowa.edu
Nancy Jackson is a Professor Emeritus in Iowa's College of Education. Her research interests include individual differences in reading acquisition; reading English as a second language; reading in non-alphabetic orthographies; and development of intellectual giftedness.

Marie Roch, PhD marie.roch@sdsu.edu
Marie Roch is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at San Diego State University. Her research interests are in the application and development of machine learning algorithms to solve problems in the automatic processing and categorization of audio. Prior to her current appointment, Professor Roch has held positions at Florida International University and AT&T Bell Laboratories. She is a member of ACM, ASA, IEEE, IEEE Signal Processing Society, and ISCA.

Julie Ostrem, MBA julie-ostrem@uiowa.edu
Julie Ostrem contributes her professional interests in research administration and communications to the Psychology of Language Lab. She also serves in external relations for the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, taking on such tasks as website creation and maintenance. She welcomes challenging her management abilities with the coordination of thousands of writing samples from children in the Chicago Public Schools.

Arik Wald, MCS arik-wald1@uiowa.edu
Arik Wald contributes his talents as a computer programmer by developing customized applications for experiments according to the given requirements and assisting others in obtaining the right tools for developing the applications. He is a big proponent of using a systematic development process where requirements are analyzed and applications are tested for correctness. He earned his master's degree in computer science and software in 2006 from The University of Iowa.

Debora Downey, Doctoral candidate debora-downey@uiowa.edu
Debora Downey is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at The University of Iowa. She earned a master's degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Northern Colorado. She works at Iowa's Center for Disabilities and Development where she heads the AAC team.

Lauren Zubow, Doctoral candidate lauren.danna@gmail.com
Lauren Zubow is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at The University of Iowa. She earned her master's degree in speech-language pathology from The University of Iowa. Lauren is interested in researching clinical decision making in augmentative communication, and the implementation of augmentative communication services in the acute care setting.


SuMin Kim is currently a master's student in the speech-language pathology program, working in the lab as a research assistant. She is interested in communication disorders, currently exploring various areas in which to specialize.

Theresa Prisco is a master's student in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She has a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Spanish from The University of Iowa.