Our Research Team
Lisa Goffman, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator
Pronouns: she/her
Lisa is Senior Scientist and Endowed Chair at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Her research program focuses on how children, both typically developing and with developmental language disorder (DLD) and speech sound disorder (SSD), map motor actions to conceptual and linguistic goals. She is especially interested in how different motor, cognitive and linguistic cues may facilitate language and speech learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD).
Maddy Felix MS, CCC-SLP
Lab Manager and Clinical Speech-Language Pathologist
Pronouns: she/her
Maddy is a speech-language pathologist in the Language in Motion Lab. Maddy earned both her BA and MS at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With previous experience in an interdisciplinary setting, Maddy is particularly enthusiastic about supporting children with communication disorders across many domains.
Erica Lescht, PhD, CCC-SLP
Postdoctoral Fellow
Erica is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Language in Motion Lab with Dr. Lisa Goffman and the Working Memory and Language Lab with Dr. Angela AuBuchon at Boys Town National Research Hospital. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from University of Maryland and her Ph.D. in Communication Science and Disorders from University of Pittsburgh. Erica is interested in the development of and interactions between working memory, language, learning and speech production skills in children with and without communication disorders.
Kathryn “Kate" Kreidler, MS, CCC-SLP
Doctoral Candidate
Kate is a PhD candidate who graduated with her bachelor's from SUNY Geneseo where she studied English literature and speech-language pathology. She continued her clinical training at Purdue University, while also working in a research lab, graduating with her master's in 2015. After this, Kate spent four years working as a pediatric speech-language pathologist in Massachusetts serving children and families in home-based and private practice settings. The skills Kate developed as a clinician combined with research experience gained at Purdue motivated her to pursue a PhD. Kate's non-lab related interests include weightlifting, making/eating bread and reading poems to her cats.
Leah Sack, MS, CCC-SLP
Doctoral Candidate
Leah Sack is a doctoral candidate in the Language in Motion lab. After earning her BA in psychology at Kenyon College in Ohio, Leah completed her MS in communication disorders at UTD. She subsequently worked as a speech-language pathologist clinical fellow at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders. Leah now studies under the mentorship of Drs. Lisa Goffman and Christine Dollaghan. Her research interests include identification of early predictors of developmental language disorder, the interactivity among the language, speech, and motor domains, and better understanding the cognitive mechanisms that may underlie language impairment. Outside of the lab, Leah enjoys playing lacrosse, running and getting back to the East Coast to visit family and friends.
Kayla Skaggs MA, CCC-SLP
Research Associate
Kayla is a speech-language pathologist at Boys Town National Research Hosptial. She earned her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology at Indiana University. She provides clinical services for children and adults who are Deaf/hard-of-hearing and serves on several research team, including the Language in Motion lab.
Tim Arbisi-Kelm, PhD
Research Associate
Tim is a research scientist in the Language in Motion Lab and in the Word Learning Lab. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed a postdoctoral training at the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests are in phonological and lexical development, and the role of prosody in language disorders.
Laiah Factor, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Pronouns: she/her/they/them
Laiah is a research associate working under the direction of Dr. Goffman. Laiah's research centers around the embodied link between co-speech manual gesture, cognitive-linguistic development, and learning in children. Her current work in the Language in Motion lab investigates the phonological aspects of gesture and how the phonology of gesture relates to linguistic and extra-linguistic cognitive factors in children with and without developmental language disorder. Laiah is also interested in the spatiotemporal alignment of speech and gesture in children with impaired language. When she is not studying gesture and child language development, Laiah enjoys spoiling her dog and cat, playing board games and fitness instruction.
Jenna Berlin
Research Associate
Janna is a research associate and has worked for Dr. Goffman for many years. She enjoys research sessions with subjects and working with the many students who are affiliated with the lab. She likes to read and hang out with her dog, Murphy and husband Carl. When possible she enjoys traveling to beautiful places for camping, hiking and fishing.
Katelyn Armstrong
Master's Candidate
Pronouns: she/her
Katelyn is a master's student in the speech-language pathology program at The University of Texas at Dallas. She is from Austin, Texas and graduated from Baylor University with a BS in communication sciences and disorders. Katelyn's clinical and research interests include typical and atypical language development in children and early intervention methods. In her free time, Katelyn loves reading, lifting weights and spending time with friends and family.
Kaitlin Easley
Master's Candidate
Pronouns: she/her
Kaitlan is a master's student in the speech-language pathology program at The University of Texas at Dallas. She received her BA in cognitive sciences, with a specialization in linguistics, and psychology from Rice University. Her areas of interest include iconic gesture and word learning in children with developmental language disorder, and she loves getting to learn more about atypical and typical language acquisition through an involvement with research and clinical intervention. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, gardening and making friends with every dog within a 10-mile radius.
Mi Huynh
Undergraduate Student
Pronouns: she/her
Mi is a third-year undergraduate student at UT Dallas majoring in psychology and plans to attend graduate school. She is interested in phonology and rhythmic structures as it relates to language acquisition. Her current work is on acoustic measures of prosody in adults. In her free time, she likes to go to the gym, try different cuisines and play Pokémon games.
