External Advisory Committee

The External Advisory Committee (EAC) provides input on scientific progress, which includes reviews of individual and pilot projects, evaluations of core facilities, and feedback on programmatic expansions. This committee plays an essential role in ensuring scientific rigor by reviewing research projects and providing feedback to Project Leads, Pilot Project investigators, and Core Leads. This committee is composed of five members, all of whom have extensive experience as grant reviewers and mentors.

External Advisory Committee Overview

External Advisory Committee Presentations

Members of the EAC come to Boys Town National Research Hospital each year for a two-day meeting. Project Leads present a summary of their progress and discuss future directions with the EAC. Watch the videos below to learn more about the projects that were presented to the EAC.

Gabrielle Merchant, Director
Translational Auditory Physiology and Perception Laboratory

Kaylah Lalonde, Director
Audiovisual Speech Processing Laboratory

Hope Sparks Lancaster, Director
Etiologies of Language and Literacy Laboratory

Angela AuBuchon, Director
Working Memory and Language Laboratory

External Advisory Committee Members

Lisa Bedore, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Temple University in Philadelphia. She is a leading expert in areas related to developmental language disorders and language learning, particularly as they pertain to bilingual children.

Lisa Goffman, Ph.D., is the Nelle C. Johnston Chair in Communication Disorders in Children and a Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences in the College of Health and Human Sciences at the University of Texas, Dallas. Dr. Goffman is known for her work on developmental language disorders, using an approach that integrates motor and cognitive components and applies those findings to intervention practices.

Kevin Munhall, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Queen's University, located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is well known for his work on the multisensory processes and brain structures involved in face-to-face communication. Dr. Munhall's approach utilizes a wide range of experimental techniques, including eye tracking, motion capture, animation, and psychophysics.

Andrew Oxenham, Ph.D., is a Distinguished McKnight Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is highly respected for his work on auditory and speech perception, addressing questions related to pitch, speech recognition with acoustic and/or electric hearing, and auditory scene analysis.

Robert Shannon, Ph.D., is the Chair of the EAC. Dr. Shannon is an Emeritus Professor of Research in Otolaryngology, Biomedical Engineering, and Neuroscience at the University of Southern California. He is well known for his work on the perception of speech and non-speech sounds by people with cochlear implants, brainstem implants, and midbrain implants. He has extensive experience as a researcher, research mentor, and grant reviewer, and has served on the NIDCD Council.