Pitt Communication Science and Disorders

#PittCSD Doctoral candidate Brandon Garivaldo, his advisor Dr. Leah Fabiano, and their collaborator Dr. Philip Combiths (University of Iowa) presented their research at the Bilingualism Matters conference last month at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy. #PittSHRS

The Spring 2026 BSL Bulletin is here! We’re excited to share the third edition of the BSL Lab newsletter, filled with updates, stories, and highlights from our amazing community. Check it out at bsllab.pitt.edu under Newsletters!

#PittCSD Faculty all gathered on Saturday, May 2 to celebrate graduates from all of our programs (undergraduate, SLP, AuD, and PhD)! Congratulations to the class of 2026! #PittSHRS

Dr. Frank Guenther was #PittCSD's 27th Annual Jack Matthews-Herbert Rubin Lecture guest speaker! His discussion was on "Using Neural Modeling to Better Understand Speech Disorders." #PittSHRS

#PittCSD 27th Annual Jack Matthews- Herbert Rubin Lecture featuring Dr. Frank Guenther is TOMORROW Thursday, April 30th at 5:15PM! Please register at: pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9u…

Over the past two weeks, our #PittCSD 2031 SLP graduate students participated in their first Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) across 30+ hours at Healthy Home Lab—our first big simulation in the books!

#PittCSD alumni, faculty and friends at the AAA Conference in San Antonio! #PittSHRS

The Pitt/UPMC Communication Van has been all over the city this week! Today, Dr. Ashley Parker and Dr. Taylor Murray drove the van to the Hazelwood Towers to provide free hearing testing to the community along with AuD students Hallie Gill and Aviga’yil Levi. #PittSHRS #PittCSD

#PittCSD second-year AuD student Tomo Curran and third-year AuD student Courtney Shepler represented audiology in the first Pitt Health Sciences Interprofessional Clinical Skills fair! #PittSHRS

Our amazing UPMC/Pitt Special Olympics Healthy Hearing team is setting up and ready to work with the outstanding athletes! #PittCSD #PittSHRS

A rainstorm couldn’t keep the Communication Van away from their monthly visit to Roots of Faith for free hearing tests and free hearing aids for those in need of hearing healthcare! #PittCSD

Congratulations to #PittCSD senior Megan Kuhn who successfully defended her Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil)! Megan's thesis, titled "Early Neural Encoding of Speech Sounds in Developmental Stuttering", rounded out a year of research in CSD's Brain Systems for Language Lab!

#PittCSD Doctoral Candidate, Emily Goldberg, was awarded the CAPCSD Plural Publishing Ph.D. Award this spring to support her dissertation research titled "The Impact of Sleep-Related Consolidation on Post-Stroke Aphasia Treatment Outcomes." #PittSHRS

Congratulations to #PittCSD on this year's US News and World Report rankings for SLP and AuD Programs! Our programs are ranked #6 in the US! #PittSHRS

The Pitt Audiology program is so grateful to be hosted each year by our Neurotology colleagues (surgeons, PAs, and MAs) for cerumen management lab!

Sara Worsham successfully defended her Master's thesis titled, "Phonological Skills in Developmental Stuttering." Her project explored phonological skills in children who stutter compared to children who do not stutter. . Congratulations to Sara!

Congrats to Rena Li for successfully defending her master's thesis! The study examined the feasibility to quantify physiology of sequential swallowing of mildly thickened liquids in 5 healthy adults and compare temporal and spatial kinematics to thin liquid sequential swallows.

Jasmine Cardino successfully defended her master's thesis entitled, Family, Culture, and Care: Filipino Families' Experiences with Early Intervention Speech-Language Therapy Services (Advisor: Dr. Leah Fabiano, Committee Members: Drs. Nancy Gauvin and Joe Ashenden). #PittCSD

Congratulations to Hannah Kirsch on her successful defense of her master's thesis on measuring the effects of semantic relatedness on aphasia treatment response!