I am a Research Investigator (PI) in the National Military Audiology and Speech Pathology Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. I hold a faculty affiliation with UMD as an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP). I completed my Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Illinois and postdoctoral training in the Hearing Research Program at the Medical University of South Carolina.

My research investigates the cognitive and neural systems that support speech and language comprehension in challenging conditions. I conduct behavioral, pupillometry, and neuroimaging studies that aim to assess and improve auditory and cognitive function in a variety of listening environments (e.g., background noise) and for a variety of populations (e.g., older adults with hearing loss; service members and veterans with TBI; adult second-language learners). A primary focus of my work aims to mitigate the speech-recognition challenges faced by individuals with hearing loss through interventions that optimize both comprehension accuracy and cognitive effort.