School of Communication Science and Disorders’ (SCSD) Assistant Professor Dr. Kari Lien showcased her expertise in cleft palate and craniofacial research at the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association (ACPA) 2026 Annual Meeting this spring, serving as an invited panelist, co-presenting an instructional course, and engaging with researchers and clinicians from across the country.

Dr. Lien participated in the invited panel, “Advancing Discovery and Equity: A Panel on Women in Craniofacial Research,” and co-presented the instructional course “Cleft Palate Speech Assessment Practice: Rating Speech Parameters With the CAPS-A-AM.”

Lien’s research focuses on speech production as well as intervention for children with cleft palate and craniofacial conditions with speech sound disorders. Working closely with surgeons and other healthcare professionals, she studies ways to improve speech outcomes and reduce the prevalence of long-term speech disorders in children born with cleft palate.

“There was a national speech outcomes study that showed that 70% of children with cleft palate have a speech sound disorder when they enter kindergarten,” Lien said. “My objective with my research is to try to reduce that number by providing high-quality, effective speech therapy in the toddler and preschool years.”

Drawing on her expertise in cleft palate research and active involvement in the craniofacial research community, Lien was invited to join a national panel for women in the field. The discussion addressed an ongoing challenge within the profession: while women are increasingly represented in craniofacial care and research, they continue to hold fewer senior leadership and research positions.

Part of the conversation focused on how to create more pathways for women to succeed through mentorship, collaboration, and professional support.

“I think the message that was most important to me was the importance of mentorship, as well as collaboration with other female researchers,” Lien said. “So, how can mentoring junior scientists or mentoring students help to increase representation of women in the field of craniofacial care and research?”

That emphasis on mentorship extends far beyond the conference and into Lien’s work with her students at Florida State University (FSU).

“Mentoring is definitely my favorite aspect of my job,” Lien said. “I think it’s a lot of fun to be able to go deeper into a specific topic that aligns with the student’s interest and overlaps with my own.”

Earlier this year, Lien brought one of her former undergraduate teaching assistants to the Florida Cleft Palate Craniofacial Conference, introducing the student to the field and helping her explore future opportunities working with children with cleft palate.

“I was able to bring her along as a student attendee,” Lien said. “She was able to attend the meeting with me and learn more about that clinical population. I do think, longer term, she’s going to be pursuing an opportunity to do an internship with a cleft palate team.”

In addition to the panel, Lien co-presented a 90-minute instructional course that trained attendees to use a standardized speech assessment tool for evaluating children with cleft palate. The course focused on improving consistency among clinicians when rating speech outcomes, a critical factor in determining whether additional treatment or surgical intervention may be needed.

“Perceptual speech ratings are challenging, but they are important as the final speech outcome from surgery, because that’s what their teacher at preschool or their parents or people in their natural environment are hearing,” Lien said. “We want our assessment to capture how other people are hearing their speech in everyday conversation.”

The ACPA conference experience continues to influence how Lien approaches teaching at FSU. In the classroom, she intentionally introduces her students to speech samples early in their academic careers, helping them connect clinical concepts to real-world patient care.

“I’ll play recorded speech samples of children with cleft palate,” Lien said. Her approach reinforces concepts from the undergraduate clinical phonetics course, giving students the chance to apply perceptual speech analysis skills while interpreting real speech samples. “I want students to know that this is something that they will be using to serve a clinical population, especially because cleft palate is a lower-incidence population. So, I try to make sure to give that exposure to students at the undergraduate and graduate level.”

Through her research, teaching, and mentorship, Dr. Lien hopes to improve outcomes for children with cleft palate while helping cultivate the next generation of clinicians and researchers dedicated to the field.

“Preparing students to ask good research questions that can translate into improved clinical care is really what drives me,” Dr. Kari Lien said.