Our Team

Geoff is a MSc student in Speech-Language Pathology at the UBC School of Audiology and Speech Sciences. With a background in music and biological sciences, he completed his Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Speech Science at UBC in 2019. During his undergraduate studies, Geoff conducted research in laboratory phonology; his undergraduate thesis investigated changes-in-progress observed in Canadian English. He is completing a master’s thesis in dysphagia examining patient and caregiver perspectives of dysphagia following critical illness and artificial airway use.

Veronica Letawsky is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia’s School of Audiology and Speech Sciences. Expanding on her master’s thesis, Veronica’s doctoral research is focused on exploring the link between swallowing physiology and salivary biomarkers in healthy and disease conditions. This includes investigating volumetric and compositional changes in saliva and how these changes affect swallowing physiology and perception in those with chronic autoimmune conditions like Sjogren’s syndrome. In doing so, she is also exploring the utility of more in-depth saliva evaluations as part of swallowing assessments to inform dysphagia management. Veronica has completed training in salivary bioscience at the University of California-Irvine’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research and has a diploma in linguistics from UBC and a BSc in biological sciences from the University of Alberta.

Hillary is an MSc Speech-Language Pathology student at the UBC School of Audiology and Speech Sciences. She received her BA in Linguistics from UBC in 2014 (with a Latin minor), then spent several years working at a not-for-profit children’s arts school before returning to UBC for her graduate studies. Her master’s thesis will explore airway protection during breathing and swallowing. Hillary’s other research interests include speech biomechanics, and previously the interface between language and numerical cognition in children.

Tahira is a clinical research professional; her role at the Si-Lab is to facilitate and support ongoing research projects. She graduated with a B.A. in psychology from the University of Victoria in 2014 and a M.Sc in neuroscience from Simon Fraser University in 2017. Her Masters research explored the neural correlates of the auditory steady state response in Down Syndrome-initiating her interest in the field of audiology and speech science.