Callie Tse – High School Research Assistant (Summer 2025)

Callie is a rising senior at Inglemoor High School. She is looking forward to assisting with research at LEAP and learning about how parent-children interactions affect language development. In the future, she aims to pursue a career in neuroscience.

 

 

 

 

Eloise Schell – Undergraduate Honors Student (2022-2025)

Eloise is a senior majoring in Speech and Hearing Sciences and minoring in Linguistics. In the lab, she is currently working on her honors thesis project exploring the relationship between speech rhythm and neural entrainment. In the future, Eloise hopes to become a speech-language pathologist and continue researching language acquisition and development.

 

 

Helen Liu – Undergraduate Honors Student (2024-2025)

Helen is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Washington, pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Linguistics. Currently, she is excited to explore speech processing and child language development alongside the LEAP team in their research. She is pursuing her Master’s in Computational Linguistics in the fall. In the future, she hopes to pursue research and work to innovate speech and communication technologies. 

 

 

Britney Pham – Undergraduate Honors Student (2023-2025)

Britney is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Washington working towards a degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences. As part of the LEAP team, she is providing assistance on a longitudinal study revolving around children’s language development. She is pursuing a Master’s in Speech Language Pathology at the UW in the fall, and hopes to work with children as a speech-language pathologist in the future.

 

 

 

Olivia Wurster – Undergraduate Research Assistant (2024-2025)

Olivia is a senior at the University of Washington, pursuing a B.S. in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She is assisting the LEAP team with speech and language transcription in a longitudinal, sibling study. She aspires to be a medical Speech-Language Pathologist, working in outpatient and rehabilitation settings. She is starting her Master’s in Speech Language Pathology at the UW in the fall. 

 

 

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Kit Nosacka – Undergraduate Research Assistant (2024-2025)
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Kit is a fourth year student at Seattle University pursuing a BS in Psychology. They have an interest in cognitive neuroscience, particularly musical therapeutic interventions in speech development delays. They are very excited to be able to assist the LEAP team in research that’s studies the relationship between speech rhythm and neural entrainment. Outside of the lab, Kit enjoys playing bass in the local music scene and curling up with their cat to read a book

 

 

 

Rebekah Varghese – Undergraduate Research Assistant (2024-2025)

Rebekah is a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience. She is assisting the LEAP team with data collection and is excited to learn more about language development—specifically language development in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in medicine with an emphasis on care for people with disabilities.

 

 


Anna Kunz – Research Speech Language Pathologist (2022 – 2024)

Anna started working at I-LABS in 2015 with Dr. Naja Ferjan Ramirez for a research project in Madrid, Spain, teaching English to Spanish speaking preschoolers. Upon returning to Seattle, Anna continued her work with I-LABS and was excited to facilitate a second iteration of the Madrid study from 2018 to 2019. She then moved to Bellingham, WA to get a master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology from Western Washington University. There she worked with Dr. Heather Moore, exploring how parent coaching strategies can support language development in young children. Anna graduated in 2022 and is currently working at the Kindering Center in Bellevue, WA as a bilingual Early Supports service provider and acting as a consultant in Dr. Christina Zhao’s lab

 

Tori Hennessy – Lab Manager & Research Assistant (2022 – 2024)

Tori was the LEAP manager and research assistant. She graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington in 2022. Prior to joining the I-LABS team, Tori was an undergraduate research assistant in the UW Language Development & Processing Lab (LDP) and mentored by Dr. Naja Ferjan Ramírez. Tori also worked as a lead preschool teacher on her home island of Kaua’i and in Seattle throughout her undergraduate years. Her research interests lie in infants’ social learning and cognitive development. When she’s not in the lab, Tori teaches yoga at the UW Intramural Activities (IMA) Center and paddles with the Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club. Tori is thrilled to begin her Ph.D. in the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego this fall!

Richard Nguyen – Undergraduate Honors Student (2023 – 2024)

Richard is a recently graduated student at the University of Washington who studied neuroscience and linguistics. Presently, he is exploring domain-general effects of early childhood bilingual environments, particularly on motor processes such as rhythmic babbling production. He aspires to pursue medicine and research in neuroscience, emphasizing language processing and production.

 

 

 

 

Jocelyn Leiter – Undergraduate Research Assistant (2023 – 2024)

Jocelyn is a fourth-year student at the University of Washington pursuing a B.S. in Speech and Hearing Sciences and minoring in American Sign Language (ASL). She is assisting the LEAP team with data input and organization. Jocelyn also assists Dr. Qi Cheng in her research in language processing of Deaf individuals by assisting the MEG technician and walking participants through the study’s procedures. Eventually, she wishes to become a pediatric speech-language pathologist and work with autistic children.

 

 

 

Aditi Marehalli – High School Research Assistant (Summer 2023, Summer 2024)

Aditi is a rising senior at Liberty High School in Renton, WA. She is excited to be investigating the impact of early childhood bilingual environments on rhythmic babbling at LEAP. She is presently working to develop a neural network for audio extraction and classification. In the future, she hopes to pursue a neuroscience and linguistics major with the long-term goal of pursuing a career in medicine.

 

 

 

Andrew Culverwell – Intern (Summer 2023)

Andy is a rising sophomore at Pomona College in California, where he plans to double major in cognitive science and computer science. This summer, he is helping with signal processing code that will be used for multiple projects at LEAP. He looks forward to future research on cognition and perception, both during and beyond his undergraduate education.