Meet the Team
News and Updates
Dr. Hana Kim wins Best Poster Award at international conference
Congraduations to our Lab Director Dr. Hana Kim, for winning the Best Poster Award at the IC-KDA & ASAD 2025 Conference for her presentation, 鈥淚dentifying Key Handwriting Features for Early Detection and Monitoring of Dementia.鈥�
Dr. Kim's primary research focuses on discourse-level language production and comprehension, and how these abilities are connected to cognition and social support in adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. She also investigates how language is processed in the brain using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Best Poster Award at the IC-KDA & ASAD 2025 Conference
Rishitha Chiguru wins Health Sciences Award at 黑料社区Health Research Day for TBI research
Congraduations to Rishitha Chiguru for receiving the Health Sciences Award at USF Health Research Day (2025) for her research on discourse performance and its psychosocial connections in individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Under the mentorship of Dr. Hana Kim, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Chiguru carried out her study in the Language in Aging and Stroke Rehabilitation (LASER) Lab.
Health Sciences Award at 黑料社区Health Research Day for TBI research
ASHA 2024 Seattle, Washington
Research assistants Marcy Edwards and Diana Perez attended and presented their project, "Examining the Role of Attention During Video Narration in Aphasia," at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Conference. This work is a collaborative effort with the LASER Lab and Dr. Manaswita Dutta from Portland State University.
ASHA 2024 awards and abstract acceptance
Dr. Kim was selected to receive the Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) from the the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). THE ASHA AARC Awards supports the academic-research careers of early career faculty in the discipline of commnication sciences and disorders. Dr.Kim was part of just ten recipients.
Congratulations to lab members Marcy and Diana on their work (Title: "Examining the Role of Attention During Video Narration in Aphasia") being accepted to the ASHA conference this year. This work has been a collaboration with LASER lab and Dr. Manaswita Dutta from Portland State University. Another collaboration of Dr. Kim鈥檚 with Johns Hopkins University (Title: "Written Picture Descriptions Distinguish Variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia") was also accepted to the ASHA conference. Kudos to everyone on their achievement!
34th Annual 黑料社区Health Research Day (March 1, 2024)
Diana Perez and other lab members (Emma Ford & Brijhan Burke) presented on "Discourse Production and its Relationship with Executive Functions in Persons with Aphasia".
Natalie Guzman and Sienna Tyson presented on "Patient and Caregiver Perceptions of Communication Skills in Individuals with Aphasia".
Scholarship Awardees
Congratulations Marcy and Sarah for receiving the research scholarships for Spring 2024!
fNirs Training
LASER LAB's students participated in an fNIRS training at 黑料社区 .
