Dr. Richard Morris

Dr. Richard Morris, professor in the School of Communication Science & Disorders (SCSD), has won a FSU Undergraduate Teaching Award for the second time.  He was also selected for this award in 2000-01.  Morris said, “I appreciate this award as it is initiated by the students and lets me know that they find value in what I teach in the classroom.”

Morris began working with the Communication Disorders department at FSU in August 1988.  He conducts research on the acoustics, physiology, and perception of voice and speech; teaches courses in anatomy and physiology, acoustics for speech and hearing, voice disorders, seminars on acoustics and voice/speech/ singing.  Morris also advises undergraduate students, and serves on university as well as other professional committees.  Since August 1994, he has been responsible for directing the School’s Speech and Voice Laboratory.

The FSU Teaching Awards program recognizes faculty for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching.  Recipients must be outstanding in many aspects of teaching which contribute to successful teaching and learning.  It is a student-oriented award with nominations submitted by students and alumni. Each recipient receives $2,000 along with the award.

Past and current award winners are listed by college at: provost.fsu.edu/faculty/awards/univ_teach

School of Communication & Science Disorders faculty member, Dr. Kaitlin Lansford, and two School of Library & Information Studies faculty members, Dr. Shuyuan Mary Ho and Dr. Richard Urban, have each been awarded First Year Assistant Professor (FYAP) Grants for 2013.

Here are some of their research project topics and links to abstract summaries:

• Dr. Kaitlin Lansford
• Dr. Shuyuan Mary Ho-
  “Identity Deception and Detection in Computer-Mediated Communications”
• Dr. Richard Urban- “Representation Patterns for Cultural Heritage”

The FSU Council on Research and Creativity offers several grant programs to support the development of research and creative activity endeavors by FSU faculty members.  These programs are made possible by FSU research-generated funding.  The Council’s assists and also encourages faculty members to seek additional or continued funding for their endeavors from external sources.

Their competitive FYAP program annually provides $20,000 maximum in support to first year assistant professors for summer salary support to facilitate research and creative activity.  The program’s purpose is to provide beginning faculty members an opportunity to devote significant time and effort, during their first summer at FSU, to the research and creative activities of their academic careers, including efforts to obtain external funding for their work.

  

Two projects from SCSD Professor Juliann Woods have recently received funding:

• Autism Spectrum Specialized Education and Training (ASSET), the federally funded personnel preparation project designed to build the capacity of speech-language pathology graduate students specializing in the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families, was awarded funding for a fourth time. Over 100 scholars have completed this program, which will support an additional 25 students with tuition and stipends. SCSD alumnus and research faculty in the Communication and Early Childhood Research and Practice Center, Dr. Emily Lakey (Ph.D., ’12), will coordinate the 2013 project. Learn more at http://asset.fsu.edu.
• Training in Research, Autism and Interdisciplinary Leadership (TRAIL), a collaboration between the SCSD and the Autism Institute at FSU’s College of Medicine, will begin recruiting students interested in doctoral degrees with a specialization in autism research for fall, 2013. Woods and L.L. Schendel Professor Dr. Amy Wetherby are principal investigators on this five-year competency-based program that will provide diverse research, teaching and professional development experiences with a systematic mentorship approach to induction into the field and into a leadership role by current faculty, former graduates and community outreach mentors. Learn more at http://trail.med.fsu.edu.

The $5,000 Speech Science Research Grant that new SCSD Assistant Professor Kaitlin Lansford received last November at the 2012 Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Atlanta will fund a project to improve diagnostic practices of dysarthria, a class of speech disorders that arises from neurological damage to the speech-motor control system.

Lansford, who joined the SCSD faculty this summer, has a primary research interest in the perceptual challenges associated with disordered and degraded speech. Dysarthria is characterized by frequent errors in the articulation, rhythm, stress and intonation of speech that can cause a reduction in its intelligibility.

A number of dysarthria subtypes have been identified and described in the literature, each associated with damage to specific components of speech-motor control. The current classification system, however, suffers from a number of limitations (e.g., overlapping perceptual features of the subtypes, effects of overall severity of the motor impairment on the dysarthria) that hinder medical professionals in their ability to properly diagnose the dysarthria subtype.

In addition, the classification system does not map well to the resulting communication disorders or to the potential treatment targets. A primary goal of the work to be completed in the Motor Speech Disorders lab at the SCSD is to develop a perceptual taxonomy of dysarthria to supplement current diagnostic practices. Toward this end, the specific aim of the project is to evaluate the construct validity of acoustic and perceptual features identified as salient to listeners’ judgments of similarity in dysarthria.

Staff member at FSU Audiology Dept. and Rev. Bill Petersen, Seth's grandfather with can on money donated towards purchasing hearing aids. / Special to the Chronicle / Tallahassee.com

An article by Tallahassee.com shares a heart-warming story about a young eight year-old boy, Seth Peterson, who decided to donate money towards hearing aids for a deaf child instead of receiving an ipod for Christmas.  It also mentions how the FSU School of Communication Science and Disorders (SCSD) helped make his wish a reality after the Petersen family contacted Dr. Catherine Johnson of SCSD’s Audiology Department to purchase hearing aids for children in need.

On. Jan. 22, Johnson and some of her staff met with Seth, his parents and grandparents.  She shared information about hearing disorders and provided a tour of the newly renovated audiology facility at the Warren building. Seth left the money he had been saving for over two years with SCSD.  The staff will ensure that his donation is used to help purchase hearing aids for a child in need of them.

The article was published on Feb. 8, 2013.  Read the full story with CCI accolade online at:
tallahassee.com/article/20130210/chronicle/302100018/young-boy-gives-up-ipod-give-hearing-aids-deaf-person