The MSDLab Team
The MSDLab relies on an awesome team of researchers, research assistants, and volunteers to explore how listeners perceive and adapt to speech produced by individuals with dysarthria. Meet the MSDLab members below.
Dr. Kaitlin Lansford
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Professor, CCI Associate Dean of Research and Creative Activities, ASHA Fellow, and MSDLab Director
Dr. Kaitlin Lansford is an ASHA Fellow, Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders, and Associate Dean of Research and Creative Activities at Florida State University. Her NIH-funded research examines how listeners perceive and adapt to dysarthric speech. This work aims to advance perceptual training as a viable listener-targeted treatment option for intelligibility disorders in dysarthria.
Kimberly Mattox, M.S.
Clinical Lab Coordinator
Kimberly Mattox serves as a Clinical Research Consultant at Florida State University, where she partners with research investigators to support protocol development and review, study startup and implementation, participant recruitment, and training. Before joining FSU, Kimberly spent nine years at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where she served as Project Coordinator in the Office of Research Regulatory Affairs. With a strong foundation in research and a passion for supporting scientific discovery, Kimberly is excited to bring her knowledge, skills, and passion to the FSU research community.
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Fun Fact: Can fingerspell two different words on each hand at the same time due to being ambidextrous and fluent in American Sign Language!
Current Research Assistants
Emily Smith
Emily Smith is in the undergraduate program for Communication Sciences and Disorders at Florida State University. She has been involved in the Motor Speech Disorders lab for the entirety of her undergraduate career. Emily eventually hopes to specialize in neurodegenerative diseases and help the population of people with motor speech disorders as a Speech-Language Pathologist.
Faith Collins
Faith is a senior in the undergraduate program for Communication Science and Disorders. She is in her second year with the MSD lab after working in a previous lab focusing on morphology. Faith will be working as an SLPA before attending grad school and hopes to gain more experience working with adults in a rehab setting.
Audrey Hendrix, M.S., CF-SLP
Audrey Hendrix is a doctoral student under Dr. Sana Tibi at the School of Communication Science and Disorders. Her research interests lie in literacy interventions, but she is also glad to support work on Motor Speech Disorders. She works in the schools as a Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellow. Audrey first volunteered in the FSU MSD Lab in 2019. She completed an HITM study with Dr. Lansford in 2022.
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Prior Students and Research Assistants
Doctoral Students
Micah Hirsch, M.S., Ph.D.
Pronouns: they/them/theirs
Micah researches as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the STEPP Lab at Boston University. They graduated with a PhD and a certificate in Measurement and Statistics from FSU in 2024. Micah also completed a Master's thesis with Dr. Lansford in 2019.
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Master's and Bachelor's Thesis Students
Samantha Bikulicius
In 2024, Samantha completed an Honors-in-the-Major (HITM) thesis under Dr. Lansford's guidance.
Bridget Gorman
Bridget completed her HITM thesis with Dr. Lansford in 2023.
Courtney Wilkinson Williams, M.S.
Courtney defended an HITM thesis in 2022 under Dr. Lansford.
Alex Lehnert
In 2020, Alex completed an HITM thesis with Dr. Lansford.