
Jan Edwards
Director of the Learning to Talk laboratory
Jan Edwards joined the University of Maryland in the Fall of 2016 as a faculty member in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences and an Associate Director of the Language Science Center. Her research focuses on children from a wide range of language experiences, including children who speak non-mainstream dialects of English or different first languages as well as children with cochlear implants or autism spectrum disorders. She is particularly interested in how children learn the sounds and words of their language and how this relates to language skills, literacy and school success.

Tatiana Thonesavanh
Lab Manager
Tatiana Thonesavanh received a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in May 2013. From 2013-2016, she was a Research Specialist at the Waisman Center at UW-Madison where she was the Recruitment, Outreach and Testing Coordinator for both the Learning to Talk Lab and the Infant Learning Lab. She is very interested in child and family research as it relates to development as a whole and she looks forward to the exciting new projects the Learning to Talk Lab endeavors at the University of Maryland.

Carolyn Mazzei
Teacher Training and Support Coordinator

Meg Cychosz
Post Doctoral Trainee

Michelle Erskine
Ph.D. Student

Allie Johnson
Ph.D. Student
Allie Johnson is a PhD student in Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland-College Park. She earned her MS degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016. Allie’s research focuses on using a variety of methods to assess speech production skills and exploring factors that influence lexical and phonological development in young children. She is particularly interested in how children with cochlear implants develop speech and language skills despite having degraded auditory input.

Zachary Maher
Ph.D. Student
Zachary Maher is a PhD student in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science at the University of Maryland-College Park. He holds a BA and MA in Linguistics from Yale University, where he was a founding member of the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project. He has also worked in a variety of roles in the field of education, including time as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Germany and as an Education Pioneers Analyst Fellow at the Newark Charter School Fund in Newark, NJ. Zach’s interests lie in the educational implications of language research, with a particular focus on supports for students who speak non-mainstream dialects.

Christina Blomquist
Ph.D. Student
Christina Blomquist is an MA/PhD student in Speech-Language Pathology in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland-College Park. She is working under the supervision of Dr. Jan Edwards and Dr. Rochelle Newman. Her primary research interests focus on language and literacy development, specifically the relationship between the development of language processing and reading acquisition. Christina earned her B.A. in Speech and Hearing Science and Psychology from the University of Iowa

Arynn Byrd
Ph.D. Student
Arynn Byrd received her MA in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Georgia in 2018. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at the University of Maryland, College Park under the guidance of Dr. Jan Edwards. Her research interests include language development, code switching, dialect instruction, and non-mainstream dialects. She is particularly interested in African American English and the educational impacts of code switching.

Kathleen Oppenheimer
Ph.D. Student
Kathleen Oppenheimer received her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Northwestern University and her BA in Linguistics and Chinese from Harvard College. She previously worked as a speech-language pathologist in a children’s hospital and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Maryland at College Park under the guidance of Dr. Yi Ting Huang and Dr. Jan Edwards. Kathleen’s research interests include language and literacy development in children with typical and atypical development. She is also interested in the diagnosis and treatment of language disorders in children who speak non-mainstream dialects of English.

Max Scribner
Undergraduate Student
Max Scribner is a senior undergraduate student studying Computer Science and Linguistics at Maryland. He is a member of the Maryland Honors College, and the Maryland Filmmaker’s club. Max is excited to learn about language acquisition while working in the lab, and is glad he can utilize his experience repairing computers to help the research continue smoothly.

Robyn Toler
Undergraduate Student

Ritwika Das
Undergraduate Student

Comfort Fabode
Undergraduate Student
Collaborators
Elise Baker
University of Sydney
Mary Beckman
Ohio State University
Naomi Feldman
University of Maryland- College Park
Yi Ting Huang
University of Maryland- College Park
Eun Jong Kong
Korean Aerospace University
Ben Munson
University of Minnesota- Twin Cities
Bob McMurray
University of Iowa
Rochelle Newman
University of Maryland- College Park
Natalie Munro
University of Sydney
Patrick Reidy
University of Texas- Dallas
Jenny Saffran
University of Wisconsin- Madison
Susan Ellis Weismer
University of Wisconsin- Madison
L2T Alumni

Maddie Rolf
Sr. Undergraduate, HESP, UMD

Abby Rosler
Sr. Undergraduate, HESP, UMD

Megan Gigliotti
Second Year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Kayla Horning
Second Year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Michele Liquori
Second Year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Rachel Niemann
Second Year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Alyssa Smith
M.A., Speech Language Pathology, UMD
Currently: CF-SLP, Frederick County Public Schools District

Joseph Smith
M.A., Speech Language Pathology, UMD
Currently: CF-SLP, Montgomery County Public Schools District

Hannah Del Rosario
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD
Currently: First year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Katelyn Fulmore
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD
Currently: First year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, Gallaudet University

Becca Higgins
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD
Currently: First year Au.D. student, UMD

Kristen Ho
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD
Currently: First year M.A. student, Speech Language Pathology, Boston, MA

Dominique Jenkins
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD

Ileana Thompson
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD

Jaclyn Davis
B.A., English and Secondary Education, UMD

Brianna Johnson
M.A., Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Nora Leonard
M.A., Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Sidra Sheikh
M.A., Sociology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Currently: Ph.D. Student, Urban Education, Temple University

Lauren Eisner
M.A. Student, Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Erica Younkin
M.A., Speech Language Pathology, UMD

Joelle Latorre
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD

Alea Goodridge
B.A., Hearing and Speech Sciences, UMD

Ashley Forster
M.P.S., Clinical Psychological Science, UMD

Tristan Mahr
Ph.D., Communication Sciences and Disorders, UW-Madison
Currently: Research Scientist, UW-Madison
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