By: Patti L. Solomon-Rice, PhD, CCC-SLP, TSHF Research Awards Committee Chair
The Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (TSHF) is pleased to recognize our 2026 grant recipients and past recipients of the TSHF Research Awards Program. Although the amount of each award is not large, the award can be sufficient to explore the feasibility of a novel idea, support preliminary research needed to apply for a larger nationally funded research project, or perhaps extend the findings of a currently funded research project. Our research program supports the TSHF mission to improve the lives of people with communication disorders by promoting research relevant to communication disorders and supporting Texas-based researchers across a variety of settings.
This year, we awarded five grants and one travel award for six research projects. The recipients were announced at the 2026 Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) Convention in Fort Worth during the TSHF Annual Breakfast. The research projects represented a wide range of topics and the award amounts totaled $10,300.
The 2026 Research Grant and Travel Award recipients are as follows:
The Past Presidents’ Research Award was presented to clinical professional Teresa Procter, SLPD, CCC-SLP, from the Department of Otolaryngology at Houston Methodist Hospital for the project Perceptions and Impact of Dysphonia Secondary to Androgen Hormone Therapy in Cisgender Women: An Explanatory Mixed-Methods Design.
The Tina E. Bangs Research Endowment was presented to faculty member Olivia Zant, PhD, AuD, F-AAA, Assistant Professor at University of North Texas, to support the project Neural Markers of Misophonia in Adults.
The Elisabeth Wiig Doctoral Student Research Endowment was presented to two doctoral students. Our first recipient was Kathleen Bradbury-John, BA, from the University of Houston for the project Differential Cueing Performance Across Lexical Retrieval Impairment in Individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia.
Our second recipient of the Elisabeth Wiig Doctoral Student Research Endowment was Erin Kosloski, BA, from The University of Texas at Dallas in support of the project Shared Language Produced by Young Autistic Children.
The Lear Ashmore Research Endowment was presented to doctoral student Sarah Crow, AuD, from The University of Texas at Dallas for the project Emotional Recognition and Central Executive Functioning in Individuals with Cochlear Implants: A fNIRS Study.
The Sandi Friel-Patti Research in Language International Travel Award was presented to Wenfu Bao, PhD, post-doctoral fellow from The University of Texas at Austin for the project Efficacy and Prediction of Tailored Lexical Retrieval Cascade Treatment in Bilinguals with Semantic or Logopenic Variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia, to be presented at the International Conference on Primary Progressive Aphasia, which took place July 16-17, 2026, at University College London in London, UK.
2025 and 2024 Award Recipient Presentations and Publications
We also continue to hear from past research and travel award recipients who confirm that your support does have impact. Two 2025 research award recipients presented their research projects, funded by the TSHF, at conventions, conferences, and symposiums. In addition, five 2024 award recipients presented their projects, funded by the TSHF, at conferences and conventions. Four of the same 2024 recipients have also published their research or their research has been accepted for publication, all of which was funded by the TSHF.
2025 Award Recipient Presentations
Janelle Flores, PhD, CCC-SLP, 2025 recipient of the Elizabeth Wiig Doctoral Student Research Endowment for the project Bilingual Educators and Speech-Language Pathologists’ Perspectives of Bilingual Learners’ Language Characteristics, presented a poster about the project at the 2025 Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders in Madison, Wisconsin.
Saranya Mundayoor, MSc-Audiology, also recipient of the 2025 Elizabeth Wiig Doctoral Student Research Endowment, presented at the following three conferences and conventions:
The Effect of Talker Variability on Speech Perception on Individuals with Normal Hearing was a poster presented at the TSHA 2026 Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, in collaboration with E. Lobarinas;
Multitalker Processing Cost in Individuals with Normal Hearing was a poster presented at the February 26-28, 2026. Scientific and Technology Conference of the American Auditory Society in Scottsdale, Arizona, in collaboration with E. Lobarinas; and
Personalizing and Optimizing Hearing Aid Compression Ratios Using Machine Learning in Adults with Hearing Loss was a poster presented at the March 22-25, 2026, American Academy of Audiology annual convention in San Antonio, Texas.
2024 Award Recipient Presentations and Publications
Prabuddah Bhatarai, MSc-Audiology, recipient of the 2024 Elisabeth Wiig Doctoral Student Research Endowment, presented at five conferences and also published a manuscript.
Presentations
Validation of a Large Set of Affective Auditory Stimuli was a poster presented at the February 13-15, 2025, Scientific and Technology Conference of the American Auditory Society in Scottsdale, Arizona, in collaboration with K. Jahn.
Emotional Responses to Environmental Sounds in Listeners with Cochlear Implants was a poster presented at the March 26-29, 2025, American Academy of Audiology (AAA) annual convention in New Orleans in collaboration with K. Jahn.
Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Emotionally Evocative Sounds in Adults with Cochlear Implants was a poster presented at the July 13-18, 2025, Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses in Lake Tahoe, California, in collaboration with K. Jahn.
Cross-cultural Validation of a Large Set of Affective Sound Stimuli for Studying Auditory Emotion was a poster presented at the November 19-22, 2025, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association annual convention in Washington, DC, in collaboration with J. Ly and K. Jahn.
Self-Perceived Hearing Deficits are Associated with Emotional Responses to Sound was a poster presented at the TSHA 2026 Convention in Fort Worth in collaboration with K. Jahn.
Publication
Bhatarai, P., & Jahn, K. (2026) Emotional and autonomic responses to natural sounds in listeners with cochlear implants. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 159, 1235-1246. DOI: 10.1121/10.0042405
Kathleen Denicola-Prechtl, MS, CCC-SLP, recipient of the 2024 Sandi Friel-Patti Research in Language International Travel Award, published the following manuscript in the Journal of Infants and Young Children.
Denicola-Prechtl, K., Rojas, R., Maese, M. A., Ventura-Lopez, S. B., Owen, M.T., & Maguire, M. J. (2026). Patterns of clinical follow-up for early language evaluations among Spanish speaking families speaking families. Journal of Infants and Young Children, 39(1),18-29. https://doi.org/10.1097/IYC.0000000000000305.
Donguk Lee, PhD, recipient of the 2024 Tina E. Bangs Research Endowment for the project entitled, Noise Tolerance and Preferred Listening Level Under Different Noise Conditions, presented a poster about the project at the March 26-29, 2025, American Academy of Audiology (AAA) annual convention in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Gary Robinaugh, PhD, CCC-SLP, recipient of the 2024 Lear Ashmore Research Endowment for the project entitled, Multimodal Communication in Progressive Aphasia: A Mixed Methods Experience Sampling Study, will present a poster about the project at the July 16-17, 2026, International Conference on Primary Progressive Aphasia in London, UK.
In addition, a manuscript of the same title has been accepted for publication by the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
In addition, a manuscript of the same title has been accepted for publication by the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Marianna Rubino, PhD, CCC-SLP, recipient of the 2024 Past President’s Research Endowment, presented at two conferences and published two articles about her research project.
Presentations
Rubino, M., Fan, R., Dueppen, A., & Joshi, A. (2024, December). Integrating personality measures for improved adherence to voice therapy recommendations in adults. Seminar presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association annual convention, Seattle, WA.
Rubino, M., Fan, R., Kulesz, P. A., Yiu, Y., Dueppen, A., Procter, T., Goodwin, M. E., Thekdi, A., & Joshi, A. (2025, September). Patient report versus instrumental measurement of voice use during post-surgical voice rest. Podium presentation presented at The Fall Voice Conference, Charlotte, NC.
Presentations
Rubino, M., Fan, R., Yiu, Y., Roy, N., Dueppen, A., Procter, T., Goodwin, M. E., Thekdi, A., & Joshi, A. (2025). Early insights into the role of personality in adherence to voice rest after phonomicrosurgery. Journal of Voice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2025.01.031
Rubino, M., Fan, R., Kulesz, P. A., Yiu, Y., Dueppen, A., Procter, T., Goodwin, M. E., Thekdi, A., & Joshi, A. (2026). Patient report versus instrumental measurement of voice use during post-surgical voice rest. The Laryngoscope. https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.70432
Many congratulations to our 2026 TSHF Research Award recipients and our 2024 and 2025 recipients who have recently presented and are publishing their research! Also, special thanks to our Research Awards Committee members Dr. Lynn Maher, professor emeritus from the University of Houston, who is past chair of the Research Awards Committee, Dr. Boji Pak Wing Lam, from the University of North Texas, and Dr. Hoyoung Yi, from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
As always, many thanks to all of you who, through your generous donations, make support of these and many more innovative and important research projects possible. Finally, thank you once again to our research award recipients for their continued effort and commitment toward improving the lives of those with communication challenges.