Justine (Allen) Dallal York, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S won first 1st Place Scientific Presentation for her work “Utility of the 3 Ounce Water Swallow Test to Detect Aspiration in Cardiac Surgical Patients.” This project was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Emily Plowman and represents the first project in the series of Justine’s doctoral dissertation work in cardiothoracic populations and dysphagia. Justine was also presented with the Springer Publishing Junior Investigator Travel Grant – an award presented to the most promising junior investigators to attend next year’s DRS meeting.
Nicole Herndon, MS, CCC-SLP, a speech-language pathologist at the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases won the Communication Sciences and Disorders Clinical Trials Research Group Logemann Travel Grant for her presentation “Oropharyngeal Swallowing Safety and Efficiency Profiles in Parkinsonism: A Retrospective Analysis.”This was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Karen Hegland. This award was founded, and is named after a pioneer in the field, Dr. Jeri Logemann.
Dr. Lauren Tabor Gray won the Steven B. Leder Clinical Award for her presentation “Concordant Validity of a Digital Expiratory Flow Meter to Assess Voluntary Cough Strength in individuals with ALS.” This work was part of her Doctoral Dissertation and was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Emily Plowman in the RSD and T32 Breathing Research and Therapeutics Training program (RSD Class of 2018).The award is given to a presentation deemed to be of the highest clinical relevance to the profession and honors the late Dr. Steven Leder – a prolific researcher, dedicated clinician, and past-president of the DRS.
Dr. Alicia Vose won the Sumiko Okada Scholarship for her work “The Role of Anticipatory Postural Adjustments in Swallowing Airway Protection Accuracy.” This work was part of her Doctoral Dissertation she completed in the RSD program (Class of 2019) under the mentorship of Dr. Ianessa Humbert. The scholarship provides travel and attendance to the Japanese Society of Dysphagia Rehabilitation in 2021 where she will present her research findings in an oral presentation during the Japanese-Korean Joint Swallowing Conference.