Category: Research

Mags McAllister is a third-year graduate student in the Speech and Hearing division in the Department of Health Sciences at UNC’s School of Medicine, where she works with Dr. Clare Harrop on several autism-focused studies. One of the main projects she’s involved in follows children ages 4 to 8 over about two years, tracking...

The Division of Speech & Hearing Sciences hosts an annual Student Research Day to bring our community together in celebration of the outstanding research conducted by our students at UNC. This event offers an opportunity to learn from and engage with student-led projects across a variety of topics. Faculty and...

Three students at the UNC School of Medicine were awarded the Department of Health Sciences Research Excellence Awards. Each year these awards recognize PhD students in the Department of Health Sciences “who showcase research excellence in their wider academic and professional communities.” Each recipient receives a $1,000 award to support travel expenses to...

Vanessa Jewell, PhD, is an associate professor in the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the UNC School of Medicine. Her research focuses on improving health care access for rural communities, particularly families with children who have type 1 diabetes. Jewell uses telehealth and community‑engaged research to develop programs that better support patients...

The Department of Health Sciences is pleased to announce 2026 U.S. News & World Report program rankings across multiple divisions. Four programs eligible received top 10 placements on the national list, and one program improved position from last year’s rankings. #2 – Doctor of Audiology #5 – Occupational Therapy #7...

Bethany Stearns, MS, RT(R)(MR)(CT), CHEP, is a clinical assistant professor in the Radiologic Science division and serves as a clinical coordinator. She has been a radiologic technologist for nearly 10 years. From the start of her teaching career, she became fascinated with how technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI), is transforming radiologic science. Stearns...

Jean Jarrett is a fourth-year PhD student in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the UNC School of Medicine. She is a licensed speech-language pathologist and licensed behavior analyst with more than 10 years of clinical experience working primarily with individuals with autism.  Jarrett earned her bachelor’s degree...

Characterizing Sleep Outcomes in School-Age Children with Hearing Loss is a two-year grant, awarded December of 2025, funded by the American Speech-Language-Hearing (ASH) Foundation. This project investigates objective and subjective measures of sleep and fatigue in children with hearing loss who use hearing aids. The research is led by Julia Drouin, AuD, PhD, Director of the Auditory Language Learning (ALLears) Lab at UNC School of Medicine.  As a clinical audiologist,...

Katarina L. Haley (PhD, CCC-SLP) and Adam Jacks (Phd, CCC-SLP) recently participated in the Swallow your Pride podcast where they talked about navigating challenges of speech disorders after experiencing strokes. During the podcast Jacks and Haley share the emerging findings on new perceptual and acoustic measures shaping the future of...

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a rare, motor-based neurodevelopmental speech disorder with a genetic basis. Children with CAS know what they want to say, but have difficulty planning and coordinating the movements needed to speak, which results in speech breakdowns.  While much of the existing research has focused on young children, growing evidence shows that the effects of CAS often persist into adolescence and adulthood—highlighting the need...