FACULTY Martin B. Brodsky, PhD, ScM, CCC-SLP, is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University and is a member of the Outcomes After Critical Illness and Surgery (OACIS) group, a multidisciplinary clinical and research group focused on understanding and improving patient outcomes after critical illness and surgery, at Johns Hopkins University. Brodsky completed his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh and obtained his ScM in clinical investigation from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He is a clinician, researcher, and international lecturer with interests in swallowing and swallowing disorders. His current research focuses on the effects of critical illness and critical care medicine on swallowing and its long-term outcomes. He is currently funded by a K23 Award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for a Phase I clinical trial designed to reduce post-extubation swallowing disorders in patients with acute respiratory failure. Brodsky is a continuing education reviewer for ASHA, a frequent reviewer for several scientific journals, and a member of ASHA, the Dysphagia Research Society, and the American Psychological Association. Lynette L. Carl, BS, PharmD, BCPS, CP, is a consultant pharmacist and a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. Carl obtained her BS in pharmacy from the University of Florida and her doctorate in clinical pharmacy from the Medical University of South Carolina. She completed a postdoctoral residency in infectious disease at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, with practice sites at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Carl has practiced as a consultant and clinical pharmacist in pharmacies providing patient care in hospital, psychiatric, hospice care, home infusion care, and skilled nursing facility settings. Her clinical practice experience includes infectious disease, critical care, nutrition support, geriatrics, internal medicine, anticoagulation, cardiology, and pain management. Receives book royalties from Pro-Ed Publishing
James L. Coyle, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, actively works as a dysphagia clinician, educator, and researcher. He sees patients in a university medical center and community hospital, and teaches dysphagia, medical SLP, head and neck anatomy, and applied aerodigestive physiology courses to undergraduate, MA-SLP, clinical doctorate, and PhD students. Coyle lectures extensively in continuing education programs nationally and internationally and is a co-investigator in an NIH-funded study investigating swallowing physiology and an unfunded study of the effect of lingual strengthening exercise on swallowing outcomes. His clinical and research interests are in the effects of disease on aerodigestive function and of aerodigestive function on disease, deployment of external and clinical evidence in developing diagnostic and intervention plans for patients with dysphagia, and the intricacies of diseases and their effect on patient communication and swallowing performance. Employee of the University of Pittsburgh Karen Dikeman, MA, CCC-SLP, is a specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders and co-author of Communication and Swallowing Management of the Tracheostomized and Ventilator Dependent Adult as well as peer reviewed articles and book chapters. She has led both national and international seminars and participated in several national clinical trials, including Protocol 201, the use of the Blom speaking tracheotomy tube, and, currently, the MOLST protocol. She is currently AVP of Pulmonary Services at the Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Queens, New York. Employee of Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation and Columbia University Teacher's College Received an honorarium from Northern Speech Services Serves in a management position in speech pathology/pulmonary service Caryn Easterling, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an ASHA Fellow and a lecturer in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She also holds an appointment in the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Easterling has been a clinician, researcher, teacher, and author for more than 30 years and currently serves as associate editor for the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Perspectives on Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (Dysphagia); and The Dysphagia Journal.
Peter R. Johnson, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a speech mentor with Select Medical, where he develops new clinical programs (including cognitive programming), conducts continuing education seminars, provides small-group and one-on-one mentoring nationally, and maintains the national clinic hotline. His previous experience includes working in acute care, home care, outpatient clinics, and long-term care. Johnson received his MS and PhD in speech-language pathology from the University of Pittsburgh and an executive graduate degree in health care financial management from Ohio State University. He has co-authored several books, including Business Matters: A Guide for the Speech Language Pathologist; Drugs and Dysphagia; and Practical Pharmacology in Rehabilitation: Effect of Medication on Therapy, and is currently working on a book on cognition. Co-author of Drugs and Dysphagia and Practical Pharmacology in Rehabilitation: Effect of Medication on Therapy Marta S. Kazandjian, MA, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, directs the Department of Speech Pathology and Swallowing at the Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation and the multidisciplinary Center for Digestive Diseases and Swallowing Disorders at New York Hospital Queens. Kazandjian also is a member of the interdisciplinary pulmonary team at Silvercrest Center for Pulmonary Care, where, along with Karen Dikeman, she directs a team to manage an 80-bed dedicated ventilator unit and 40-bed step-down tracheostomy unit. She has extensive experience with complex medically fragile populations in acute, sub-acute, and long-term care settings. Employee of Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation and Columbia University Teacher's College Received an honorarium from Northern Speech Services and Charleston Swallowing Conference
Serves in a management position in speech pathology/pulmonary service Kathryn Kieffer, MS, CCC-SLP, earned her graduate degree in speech pathology at the University of South Florida. She currently works at the Tampa VA Hospital Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center as a speech-language pathologist in the Acute Inpatient Brain Injury Program. Her 16 years of clinical experience includes specializing in the assessment and treatment of moderate to severe cognitive-communication deficits in veteran and active duty patients. She has most recently participated in a national multicenter research protocol examining recovery and outcomes in the emerging consciousness brain injury population. As co-chair of the Performance Improvement Committee for the Acute Inpatient Brain Injury Program, she analyzes best practices to optimize treatment outcomes in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. Speech-language pathologist at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital Received a complimentary conference registration from ASHA for this presentation Cathy L. Lazarus, PhD, is currently the research director of the THANC Functional Outcomes Research Center at the THANC Foundation in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She has been conducting research on normal and abnormal swallowing for many years. Her primary interest is swallowing in treated head and neck cancer patients, focusing on outcomes after head and neck cancer treatment. She has procured NIH funding and has participated in multi-site randomized clinical trials examining treatment for swallowing disorders. Lazarus has been teaching the dysphagia course to graduate students in the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department at New York University for the past 12 years. She has served on ASHA committees and on the Board of the American Board of Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders. She is also a past-president of the board of the Dysphagia Research Society. Received royalties from NSS-RS Employee of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Has been a board member of the Dysphagia Research Society and the American Board of Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders
Paula Leslie, PhD, CCC-SLP, supports clinicians from the local to international level in complex clinical decision making, ethics, and end-of-life decisions in vulnerable populations. Leslie is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the clinical doctorate in medical speech-language pathology and is interested in nontraditional routes to advanced clinical training. She is a member of ASHA Special Interest Group 15 (Gerontology), on the editorial board of ASHA Special Interest Group 13 (Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders), and a member of the British Special Interest Group in Palliative and Supportive Care. She is a full member of the Dysphagia Research Society (USA) and a founding member and current scientific chairperson of the UK Swallow Research Group. In 2011, Leslie was appointed a Fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in Britain, where she is also a specialist professional adviser in swallowing. Employee of the University of Pittsburgh Member of SIG 15 Member and editorial board member of SIG 13 Dale M. Needham, FCPA, MD, PhD, is a professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine and a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the director of the Outcomes After Critical Illness and Surgery (OACIS) group and core faculty with the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, both at Johns Hopkins. Clinically, he is an attending physician in the medical intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital and medical director of the Johns Hopkins Critical Care Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program. Needham received his MD from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and completed both his residency in internal medicine and his fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD in clinical investigation from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Notably, before his medical training, he completed bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting and practiced in a large international accounting firm, with a focus in the health care field. Needham is the principal investigator on a number of NIH research awards and has more than 180 publications. His research interests include evaluating and improving ICU patients long-term physical, cognitive, and mental health outcomes, including research on early physical rehabilitation. Received grant funds from NIH
Linda M. Picon, MCD, CCC-SLP, obtained her graduate degree in communication sciences and disorders from Auburn University in 1990. Since June 2014, she has served as the senior consultant for traumatic brain injury (TBI) for the Veterans' Health Administration in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In this role, she functions as the TBI liaison for the Department of Defense and VA at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and TBI. Picon comes into this new role after 21 years in the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, Florida, where she provided rehabilitative services as a speech-language pathologist for the TBI program. Her numerous collaborative projects with the military health system have included writing clinical practice recommendations, practice guidance, and preferred practice documents, as well as protocol development for congressionally mandated TBI treatment trials. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Florida, has co-authored book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, and has presented numerous national lectures on the subject of TBI. Senior consultant/tbi liaison at the Department of Veterans Affairs Received a complimentary conference registration from ASHA for this presentation. Justine Joan Sheppard, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, is an ASHA Fellow and teaches courses in pediatric and adult dysphagia in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University. She also consults for residential centers for adults with special needs. Sheppard is active in continuing education and has presented many workshops in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Europe. Her research emphasizes understanding the swallowing and feeding disorders of children and adults with developmental disabilities and the use of motor learning and behavioral strategies to maintain and improve skills and provide for optimum quality of life. She was honored as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, NZ, and as a guest editor for a Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools clinical forum on dysphagia in the schools. Sheppard has contributed many scientific papers to peer-reviewed journals, authored scholarly book chapters, and was co-editor of Dysphagia and the Child with Developmental Disabilities, Medical, Clinical, and Family Interventions. Received consulting fees from the state of New Jersey and Nutritional Management Associates, LLC Employee of Teachers College, Columbia University
Member of IASSID and AACPDM Alice K. Silbergleit, PhD, CCC-SLP, is the director of the Division of Speech-Language Sciences and Disorders in the Department of Neurology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan. She specializes in adult dysphagia; professional voice disorders; motor speech disorders; and voice, speech, and language disorders due to neurological impairment. Her research has included the investigation of dysphagia before and after deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease, acoustic analysis of voice in neurological disease, and the investigation of vocal fold vibration following photodynamic therapy in early laryngeal cancer. She is the lead author of "The Dysphagia Handicap Index," a patient-reported outcomes tool. Employee of Henry Ford Health System