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Doctoral Student
University of Georgia
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education at the University of Georgia. Concurrently, I am pursuing a Certificate of Quantitative Methods in Family Science and Human Development. My current research focuses on understanding how reading and written language is impacted by traumatic brain injury (TBI) in order to further identify effective approaches for supporting people returning to productivity after TBI. I have published a systematic review and meta-analysis of TBI effects on reading abilities and led the development and validation of a psychological measure for assessing college students’ reading self-efficacy. Additionally, I am interested in applying innovative analytical methodologies to rehabilitation research. I used two natural language processing approaches – topic modeling and sentiment analysis – as well as qualitative content analysis in analyzing written language in social media data, aiming to characterize people’s needs and concerns post traumatic brain injury, as well as online community participation of people with TBI. These experiences have allowed me to build strengths in quantitative research design and data analysis. Prior to my PhD studies, I worked as a speech language pathologist in a medical setting, primarily providing evaluation and treatment to individuals with acquired brain injury and other neurological diseases. My long-term career goal is to support return-to-learn and return-to-work for people with traumatic brain injury and related disorders.
