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Alessandra Verdi's IHP Master's Thesis Defense

June 17, 2021

It is our pleasure to invite you to attend Ali Verdi’s Master’s thesis defense next Wednesday.

Title: Ecological momentary assessment of vocal effort in patients with vocal hyperfunction

Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Time: 4:00–5:00pm ET

Zoom link: (email me for link)

(Dr.!) Katie Marks was an excellent mentor for Ali, as they worked together very closely on this project. We are very proud of Ali’s...

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Congrats to soon-to-be Dr. Marks!

April 20, 2021

Katie Marks successfully defended her PhD dissertation, "Toward Improved Assessment of Vocal Effort During Activities of Daily Living!"

Katie’s passion is in assessing and alleviating the excessive vocal effort experienced by patients suffering with voice disorders. I am very proud of Katie as she has steered multiple ships at the MGH Voice Center, including leading studies funded by my first independent grant...

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Laura Toles' PhD defense date is set!

March 29, 2021
Laura will be defending her PhD dissertation entitled, “The Role of Daily Voice Use and Personality in the Etiology and Pathophysiology of Phonotrauma in Singers," over Zoom on Thursday, June 3, at 12 noon ET. Contact me for details to join. Laura has played an integral role in our large P50 ambulatory voice monitoring project (read more at massgeneral.org/vhcrc). We are very proud of Laura's work the last four years and wish her well. Read more about Laura Toles' PhD defense date is set!

Get ready...Katie Marks' PhD defense date is set!

March 17, 2021
We are very excited to announce that Katie's doctoral dissertation defense date and time are set. She will be presenting her work via Zoom on Tuesday, April 20, at 1pm ET. The title of her thesis is, "Toward Improved Assessment of Vocal Effort During Activities of Daily Living." Contact me for details to join. We're very proud of Katie's sustained effort (pun intended) for the past four years that have guided the success of both my Early Career R21 project on non-invasive estimation of subglottal pressure and our large P50 ambulatory voice monitoring project (read more at ... Read more about Get ready...Katie Marks' PhD defense date is set!

Katie Marks and Laura Toles are awarded ASHFoundation New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarships!

November 21, 2020

Very happy to see two of our lab's MGH IHP doctoral students, Katie Marks and Laura Toles, receive The ASHFoundation New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship. Katie's area of interest is in the study of vocal effort in patients with voice disorders, and Laura's area of interest is in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hyperfunctional voice disorders. See their smiling faces and other awardees at ...

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Ali Verdi wins Fall Voice Award!

October 24, 2020

Very happy for MGH IHP Master's student Ali Verdi who has received one of only six Fall Voice Virtual Podium/Virtual Poster Pod Awards! Ali and IHP doctoral student Katie Marks collaborated closely on their study on Ecological Momentary Assessment of Vocal Effort in Patients with Vocal Hyperfunction. In 2020, the Fall Voice was a virtual conference, and Ali submitted a pre-recorded presentation and was present live for Q&A.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of vocal effort exhibited in daily life by patients with vocal...

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Newly minted Dr. Olivia Murton!

October 13, 2020

Congratulations to SHBT doctoral student Olivia Murton who successfully defended her thesis on "Health monitoring with voice analysis: Acoustic correlates of heart failure, irregular pitch periods, and dysphonia"!

Olivia has been an integral lab member at the MGH Voice Center for over 4 years and is the consummate Renaissance woman, with knowledge in linguistics, voice and speech science, speech-language pathology, cardiology, quiz bowl competitions...

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Olivia Murton's PhD defense date is set!

September 15, 2020
We are very excited to announce that Olivia's doctoral dissertation defense date and time are set. She will be presenting her work via Zoom on Tuesday, October 13, at 12 noon ET. Title: "Health monitoring with voice analysis: Acoustic correlates of heart failure, irregular pitch periods, and dysphonia." Contact me for details.

Olivia's paper on clinically relevant cutoff scores for CPP is accepted for publication!

April 20, 2020

Congratulations to Olivia Murton for getting another publication under her belt! Her forthcoming paper is titled, "Cepstral peak prominence values for clinical voice evaluation." It will be published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

The goal of this study was to employ frequently used analysis methods and tasks to identify values for cepstral peak prominence (CPP) that can aid clinical voice evaluation. The CPP cutoff values identified in Experiment 1 provide normative reference points for clinical voice evaluation based on sustained /a/ vowels and...

Read more about Olivia's paper on clinically relevant cutoff scores for CPP is accepted for publication!