Issuu

College of Health and Human Services

School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Dear Donor,

Your support allows us to work toward our vision of preparing students to positively impact communities while promoting speech, language, and hearing well-being.

Our Audiology and Speech-Language Clinics provide over 6,000 hours of nocost services for people in San Diego County each year, improving access to services for many in our local community. Our faculty’s research also contributes to the School’s vision through hearing screenings for farmworkers who are consistently exposed to loud noise as well as speech and language screenings for children at public libraries.

Our programs improved the U.S. News & World Report rankings, refecting the positive impact our alumni have in their communities. Our joint program in audiology with UCSD increased its ranking by seven spots (now #23), and our M.A. program in speech-language pathology increased by one spot (now #11).

Your philanthropy supports many students, allowing them to focus on their academic and clinical learning through experiences with cutting-edge clinical tools.

Thank you for supporting the School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences!

Ignatius Nip, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Director and Professor School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences College of Health and Human Services

Propelling the SDSU Community Forward

Hofer-Riedman Endowed Scholarship

The Hofer-Riedman Endowed Scholarship provides support to students in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences in the College of Health and Human Services. To honor the scholarship’s emphasis on serving diverse communities, recipients in the Master of Arts in SpeechLanguage Pathology program must be bilingual in Spanish—refecting the critical need for culturally and linguistically responsive care in the feld. Through this meaningful investment, the Hofer-Riedman Scholarship is shaping the next generation of speech, language, and hearing professionals committed to inclusive and impactful clinical practice.

Drs. Jolene Koester and Ron Lustig Endowment for the Audiology White Coat Ceremony

The Drs. Jolene Koester and Ron Lustig Endowment for the Audiology White Coat Ceremony at San Diego State University signifes a profound commitment to the advancement and recognition of audiology students. This endowment is dedicated to supporting the annual White Coat Ceremony, a pivotal event that marks audiology students’ transition to clinical practice and underscores their dedication to providing exceptional patient care and service.

Students during the Audiology White Coat Ceremony

Thriving in the Aztec Experience

Edriana Madrid, Class of 2025

Class Level: Undergraduate Student College: College of Health and Human Services

Major: Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

Edriana Madrid’s time in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences has been transformative. She engaged deeply with coursework that challenged her critical thinking, expanded her understanding of communication sciences, and introduced her to evidence-based clinical practice. From studying bilingual language development to analyzing the social and cultural factors that infuence healthcare access, each class afrmed that she had found the right path.

Beyond the classroom, she served as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Undergraduate Representative for the SLHS DEI Council and as the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Co-Coordinator for the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association chapter.

She worked with faculty and peers to promote inclusion, attended events like Legislative Advocacy Day and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, and co-organized panels on neurodiversity, autism, and equitable healthcare.

Through the Comprehension Opportunities in Reading and Language Lab under Dr. Alonzo, she contributed to a systematic review on comprehension interventions for prereaders with developmental language disorder and supported community literacy events.

This fall, she will begin her master’s in Speech-Language Pathology at SDSU, grounded in cultural humility, service, and inclusive care.

Steven Huezo, Class of 2025 Class Level: Graduate Student College: College of Health and Human Services Major: Doctor of Audiology

Steven Huezo’s time in the College of Health and Human Services has been both deeply meaningful and transformative.

The Doctor of Audiology program has challenged him to grow in ways he never anticipated—clinically, academically, and personally.

He has had the opportunity to serve pediatric patients during his externship at Rady Children’s Hospital, conduct research on the impact of COVID-19 on auditory function, and present his work at national conferences.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible mentorship he received, especially from Dr. Laura Dreisbach. Her guidance, support, and belief in him have shaped not only his academic path but also the kind of audiologist and person he strives to become.

He is deeply grateful for this community and all the opportunities it has provided.

Celebrating Shared Success

Recent Rankings

According to U.S. News & World Report, the Speech-Language Pathology graduate program is ranked No. 11 nationally

Statistics of Interest

Students obtain more than 2,300 hours of clinical experience over the course of the four-year program.

Recent Highlights

The Au.D. Joint Doctoral Program was the frst of its kind in California.

No. 11

Clinical Training

Ranked No. 11 nationally by U.S. News & World Report, our Speech-Language Pathology graduate program stands among the top, preparing leaders in communication sciences.

The four-year program provides students with more than 2,300 hours of immersive clinical training.

Laura Coco, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A

Title: Assistant Professor, Audiology College: College of Health and Human Services Achievement: Dr. Coco’s work focuses on preventing noiseinduced hearing loss among primarily Spanish-speaking farmworkers, including those in Imperial County.

In collaboration with local partners and SDSU students, she has led data collection and dissemination for several community-engaged projects, including a study measuring noise exposures on farms, supported by the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

As a dedicated mentor, Dr. Coco places student engagement at the core of her work. This year, she co-authored two peerreviewed manuscripts with SDSU students and collaborated with a student to publish an article in a widely read trade magazine. Over the past year, her students have received multiple recognitions, including a CHHS Graduate Student Award, frst place at the SDSU Grad Slam—a three-minute thesis competition for graduate students—and a HispanicServing Institution Award for their presentation at the 2025 SDSU Student Symposium (S³). In recognition of her commitment to service learning, Dr. Coco was named runnerup for the SDSU Excellence in Community Engaged Learning (EXCEL) Award. Her lab is actively involved in the community, including providing hearing exams during the frst SDSU-led Día del Campesino health fair in Calexico, California. These activities promote student training, build community capacity, and advance equitable health and well-being.

Fitting hearing aids for farmworkers identifed with hearing loss at a local health fair was a powerful reminder of how lifechanging accessible hearing care can be. We also provided ear cleanings—something as simple as removing earwax can signifcantly improve someone’s ability to hear and communicate. This community service efort is part of our broader research study aimed at measuring the prevalence of hearing loss and occupational noise exposures among farmworkers in the U.S. Southwest region. It is a privilege to contribute to a project that generates crucial data while delivering tangible benefts to the community.

Faculty Achievements

Ashley Sanabria, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Title: Assistant Professor College: College of Health and Human Services

Achievement: Dr. Ashley Sanabria’s research explores how classroom experiences shape bilingual children’s language and reading development, particularly among those with developmental language disorder (DLD). Through the work of the Language Impairment, Bilingual Reading, and Observational Research (LIBRO) Lab, Dr. Sanabria has led several large-scale studies focused on educational context, instructional practices, and language outcomes among Spanish-English bilinguals.

In one ongoing study, more than 1,000 bilingual children in dual language and English-only programs, spanning preschool through third grade, were assessed in both English and Spanish—including a subset of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Findings showed that students in dual language programs, including those with disabilities, demonstrated stronger language and reading skills in both Spanish and English, although their rates of growth were similar across educational contexts. Another study of bilingual children in grades 2–5 revealed that dual language immersion did not hinder English reading development for children with DLD and may even support better comprehension outcomes.

In parallel, Dr. Sanabria’s team has advanced the use of classroom observation methods to examine literacy instruction. Their work has uncovered diferences in instructional opportunities between dual language learners and their monolingual peers, underscoring the powerful infuence of classroom learning environments. Collectively, these studies provide critical insights into how instructional settings can support—or constrain—the literacy trajectories of bilingual children, especially those with language-based learning needs.

Through these projects, dozens of SDSU students—many from bilingual backgrounds—have had the opportunity to engage directly with children in our local communities. These experiences not only deepen students’ understanding of bilingualism and development, but also empower them to think critically about how educational practices shape children’s academic and language outcomes.

Faculty Achievements

Hatun Zengin-Bolatkale, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Title: Associate Professor, Speech Pathology

College: College of Health and Human Services

Achievement: My research program focuses on understanding what causes stuttering and why some children recover while others continue to stutter into adulthood.

To investigate these questions, I have used neuroscience and psychophysiological methods (e.g., Event-related potentials (ERP), heart rate, skin conductance) in controlled laboratory settings to examine the emotional and cognitive contributors to stuttering and its variability. However, to fully understand the processes that contribute to the persistence of stuttering, we must study children in real-world contexts where communication actually occurs.

With support from a recent HealthLINK Center Pilot Project Award, I launched a new study that moves this work out of the lab and into everyday settings. Children who stutter are six times more likely to develop anxiety disorders than their fuent peers, and this study aims to better understand the mechanisms—particularly the role of communication stress and the fght-or-fight response—that may underlie both the persistence of stuttering and associated social-emotional challenges.

In this study, children wear a biosensor-equipped watch that continuously measures physiological indicators of stress, such as heart rate and skin conductance, as they engage in daily interactions with peers, parents, and teachers. These data are paired with acoustic and linguistic recordings to examine how stress varies across diferent social and linguistic contexts. The study also includes both monolingual and bilingual children, helping to address a critical gap in the literature. By capturing ecologically valid, multimodal data, my goal is to uncover early risk markers for persistent stuttering and to develop clinical interventions guided by the lived experiences of children who stutter.

With recent advances in wearable technology, I can fnally study what individuals who stutter have been telling us for years—that everyday conversations can trigger overwhelming stress. I’m deeply grateful to the fantastic students in my lab and the local stuttering community, whose support makes this work possible.