Chautauqua Speakers

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)

Wednesday, April 15 | 10:00 AM ET

Sarah Baar, MA, CCC-SLP

Sarah Baar is a speech-language pathologist in Grand Rapids, MI. She’s had the opportunity to work in many settings across the continuum including acute care, acute rehab, home & community, and outpatient therapy, as well as being involved in various leadership projects. In 2016, she started the Honeycomb Speech Therapy website as a way to promote person-centered and functional therapy ideas for adult rehab. Those who have attended her speaking events enjoy her practical approach and tips that the everyday SLP can implement for a meaningful therapy approach.

Becky Kayum, MS, CCC-SLP

Becky Khayum, MS, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in person-centered care for people living with different types of dementia syndromes, including primary progressive aphasia (PPA). She is the president of the therapy company Memory and Aphasia Care and is the co-founder of Cognitive Concierge. Becky has collaborated in research focused upon speech-language treatment for people living with PPA and is a co-chair of the PPA Task Force at the National Aphasia Association.

Community Aphasia Centers

Wednesday, April 15 | 6:00 PM ET

Cathy Off, PhD, CCC-SLP

Catherine (Cathy) Off is Professor and School Chair of the School of Speech, Language, Hearing, & Occupational Sciences in the College of Health at the University of Montana. She is the founder and co-director of the Behavioral Research of Aphasia and Intensive Neurorehabilitation (BRAIN) Lab and is the founder and co-director of the Big Sky Aphasia Program. The Big Sky Aphasia Program is a university-based Community Aphasia Center that offers both in-person and telehealth individual and group aphasia therapies and implements an Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (ICAP) each summer. The ICAP focuses on both the stroke survivor and the family care partners to promote living well with aphasia. Cathy is the current President of the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS), is the current Managing Editor for the Clinical Aphasiology Conference’s special issue in AJSLP, and is an active member of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) Cardiovascular Program Stroke Workgroup. Cathy completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington in 2008 with an emphasis on aphasia rehabilitation. She is looking forward to visiting her alma mater this summer during their commencement activities as their 2026 Distinguished Alumna. Cathy’s research focuses on innovative rehabilitation service delivery models and rural outreach in the context of post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation, with a focus on both patient and care partner outcomes and graduate student clinician training. Currently, Cathy and her team are leading an international collaborative of ~60 clinicians, researchers, and doctoral students who seek to advance the science and practice of Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programs (ICAPs) through data sharing and collaborative research endeavors.

Elyse Shumway, MA, CCC-SLP

Elyse Shumway is the Director of Clinical Services and Education at the Aphasia Institute, focusing on service programs, as well as training, and resources. She is also an adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto Department of Rehabilitation Sciences. Elyse has worked in many settings along the continuum of care, serving individuals who have aphasia, cognitive-communication disorders, and other communication disorders caused by stroke, brain injury, and neurological illnesses.

Michelle Armour, MS, CCC-SLP

Michelle Armour is the Program Manager and Founder of the Northwestern Medicine Aphasia Center at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, IL. She specializes in stroke rehabilitation with specific area of interest in neurogenic communication disorders. Michelle has conducted clinical research and had her work published on the topic of supportive communication, quality of life, and acute inpatient rehabilitation for patients with aphasia.

Mentoring

Thursday, April 16 | 10:00 AM ET

Katie Strong, PhD, CCC-SLP, ASHA-F

Dr. Katie Strong leads the Strong Story Lab at Central Michigan University, partnering with people with aphasia to co-construct stories that support identity and healing. A colleague and mentee of the late Dr. Sandra Glista, Katie was honored as a 2025 recipient of the mentoring award bearing Sandy’s name. She is an ASHA Fellow who co-hosts the Aphasia Access Conversations Podcast and serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief for Seminars in Speech and Language.

Brielle Stark, PhD

Brielle C. Stark, PhD (she/her/hers), is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Indiana University and affiliated faculty in the Program in Neuroscience. Her work centers on aphasia—understanding language and cognitive processes after stroke and advancing research and clinical approaches that support communication and recovery. Dr. Stark completed her doctoral training in Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Trust Scholar, followed by postdoctoral fellowship training at the Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery. She is also a proud alumna of Bryn Mawr College. Aphasia research and education are at the heart of Dr. Stark’s career, and her contributions have been recognized nationally and internationally. In 2021, she was named one of four Distinguished Aphasia Scholars USA, a national honor awarded by the Tavistock Trust UK. She was also a Fulbright Scholar Awardee in Spring 2025 at the University of Technology Sydney, where she continued to build international collaborations in aphasia research and rehabilitation. Equally central to Dr. Stark’s work is her deep commitment to mentoring and teaching. She was honored with the 2021 IU Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Center for Women & Technology, the 2021 IU Trustees Teaching Award, and the 2025 Sandra O. Glista Excellence in Mentoring Award from AphasiaAccess. She is also a trained Peer Reviewer for IU’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching. Her dedication to supporting students, trainees, and colleagues reflects a career-long investment in helping others grow as scholars, clinicians, and leaders. Her broader contributions to Indiana University were recognized with the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for 2022–2023. In 2025, she also published her first children’s book, The New Ways We Talk!, extending her commitment to aphasia education and communication access to new audiences.

Julianne Alexander, PhD, CCC-SLP

Julianne is an assistant professor in the Department of Speech Language Pathology at Saint Mary’s College, where she teaches at the graduate and undergraduate levels and researches inner speech and life experience in aphasia.

Erin O’Bryan, PhD, CCC-SLP

Erin O’Bryan, PhD, CCC-SLP leads the Wichita Adult Language Lab in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wichita State University in Kansas. Her research investigates the effects of involving care partners in person-centered storytelling projects for people with aphasia. Her collaborative research with Dr. Katie Strong and care partner Harold Regier is featured in Aphasia Access podcast episode #123: Engaging Care Partners, Sharing Stories, and Waffle Night Celebrations.

Rehab Settings

Thursday, April 16 | 6:00 PM ET

Elissa Larkin, MS, CCC-SLP, HEC-C

Elissa Larkin, MS, CCC-SLP, HEC-C works at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab as a Senior Research Speech-Language Therapist at the Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment and Bioethicist in the Donnelley Ethics Program. Elissa holds a Master of Science in Communication Disorders with bilingual certification (Spanish) and completed advanced training in bioethics at Northwestern Medicine Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, subsequently earning national certification as a Healthcare Ethics Consultant. Elissa’s areas of professional focus include research and treatment approaches guided by disability justice principles and partnership with people with lived experiential expertise, ethical frameworks to promote patient rights and shared decision-making in rehabilitation practice, and interprofessional education models to increase communication access and equity for all patients.

Julia Carpenter, MA-CCC-SLP

Julia Carpenter, MA, CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS is the Program Manager for the Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. She also works in the organization’s Staff Development Department on implementation initiatives where she works with clinicians across the system of care to integrate evidence-based practices. Julia has presented at national rehabilitation conferences on various topics, including the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s national conference. Julia co-authored book chapters on behavioral interventions in poststroke aphasia and decision-making capacity assessment for individuals with aphasia. She has conducted research and authored peer-reviewed journal articles on the topics of constraint induced language therapy; patient-centered outcome measurement; composite rehabilitation outcomes in mobility, self-care, and cognitive-communication; implementation of surface electromyography into clinical management of dysphagia; a treatment protocol for skill-training in dysphagia; and characteristics of subacute dysphagia in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Julia developed the program for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s 2024 Health Care Summit on Grand Rounds in Aphasia Management. She holds board certification from the Academy of Neurogenic Communication Disorders and was awarded the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Exemplary Practice award

Jodi Morgan, CCC-SLP

Jodi Morgan is the director and co-founder of the Brooks Rehabilitation Aphasia Center. She serves as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at Jacksonville University. She teaches courses in adult language disorders and cognitive disorders. Her research interests are in life participation approach to aphasia. She is currently an advisor for the National Aphasia Association and active member of Aphasia Access. She received the Aphasia Access International Clinical Innovator award in 2021. The BRAC aphasia team was honored with receiving the Inaugural Stroke Onward Aphasia Access Identity and Impact Award in April of 2025.

Research

Friday, April 17 | 10:00 AM ET

Jytte Isaksen, PhD

Jytte Isaksen is an associate professor at the Department of Culture and Communication, University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark. She has a background as speech and language therapist and holds a PhD in aphasia rehabilitation. Jytte’s research is centered around the individual and the family living with aphasia including communication access.

Karen Hux, PhD, CCC-SLP

Karen Hux, PhD, is the Director of Research at Quality Living, Inc. She performs and coordinates research among professionals interested in assessing and treating people with acquired neurological disorders. Over the past 30 years, she has mentored numerous bachelors, masters, and doctoral students preparing for careers in speech-language pathology and published extensively about the cognitive and communication problems associated with strokes and acquired brain injuries.

José G. Centeno, PhD, CCC-SLP

José G. Centeno, PhD, CCC-SLP, conducts research and teaches in subject areas at the intersection of aphasiology, multilingualism, ethnogeriatrics, and health equity. Dr. Centeno’s current projects include research and a community program. His research focuses on the needs, barriers, and facilitators in the care and quality of life of Latinx individuals with post-stroke aphasia. He also leads a brain health community program for ethnically diverse older adult groups in Newark, NJ.

Acute Care

Friday, April 17 | 5:00 PM ET

Robyn O’Halloran, PhD

Robyn is the Director, CRE Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation at La Trobe University, a research centre dedicated to improving the lives of people living with aphasia. Her research is focused on ways to create communicatively accessible and inclusive healthcare environments to improve the quality, safety and health outcomes of people with aphasia and others with communication support needs. She is first author of the Inpatient Functional Communication Interview: Screening Assessment and Intervention, published by Plural Publishing, which includes a range of assessment and intervention tools for health professionals to support patient-provider communication with people with communication disability. This resource includes:

• • – The IFCI-Screening Questionnaire for nurses to identify inpatients who will need communication support in hospital,
  • – The IFCI for speech pathologists to identify the kinds of communication supports patients will need to communicate with healthcare providers in hospital,
  • – The IFCI – Environmental Questionnaires, for all healthcare providers to identify ways to improve access and inclusion for people with communication disability in hospital.

Robyn has been awarded over $8 million in research funding. She is currently leading a program of research titled “Inclusive conversations for safer medicine use” to develop online learning modules for pharmacists, for safer conversations about medicines with people with communication support needs, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care under the Quality Use of Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Pathology program. She was made a Fellow of Speech Pathology Australia in 2022 for outstanding, ongoing contribution to speech pathology.

Keynote Session

Saturday, April 18 | 10:30 AM ET

Nina Simmons-Mackie, PhD Professor Emeritus

Nina Simmons-Mackie, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA. She was the founding president of Aphasia Access. She has received the Honors of ASHA, ANCDS and the Louisiana Speech-Language-Hearing Association as well as the Audrey Holland Speak Up Award from Aphasia Access and the Robin Tavistock Award for Aphasia from the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia in the UK. Interests include aphasia, qualitative research, and social model philosophies.