Our Team

The Swallowing Innovations Lab brings together researchers, trainees, clinicians, and patients.

Our team approaches our research streams from unique perspectives, maintaining a dynamic and innovative environment. Our researchers, trainees and clinicians come from a variety of academic backgrounds and fields. We strive for clinical stakeholder and patient partner participation in all projects in order to maintain the clinical applicability of our work and facilitate prompt translation of our findings into practice, while keeping patients at the center of what we do.

director
Dr. Stacey Skoretz

PhD, CCC-SLP, SLP(C), R.SLP

University of British Columbia
Research Trainees
Veronica Letawsky

MSc, RSLP, SLP(C)

Doctoral Student

Details

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.

Ann Marie Schreiber

MScSLP, RSLP, SLP (C)

Speech Language Pathologist
Doctoral Student

Details

Ann-Marie Schreiber is a PhD student studying the biomechanics of swallowing following tracheostomy and the science behind the implementation of evidence-based practice. She received both?her B.A. in Psychology and M.Sc. in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Alberta. Ann-Marie has extensive clinical experience in acute care?and rehabilitation?hospitals in Canada, the UK and Australia, with a?particular interest in critical care. 

Adi Schlager

UBC Biomedical Engineering

Work Learn Project Assistant

Max Abercrombie

BKin, UBC Masters of Kinesiology

Work Learn Project Assistant

Research Associates
Dr. Camilla Dawson

DClinP, BSc (hons) MRCSLT, HCPC

Honourary Research Associate

Details

Dr. Camilla Dawson is a Consultant Speech and Language Therapist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, one of the biggest hospital Trusts in the UK, hosting the largest single critical care unit in Europe, with 100 bed spaces. Camilla is a clinical academic, working clinically within critical care, with people who have undergone surgical treatment of head and neck cancer and those with altered airways. Camilla is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Institute of Clinical Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine at The University of British Columbia.

Camilla’s doctoral research explored dysphagia following head and neck cancer surgery in the acute phase of recovery. This work identified the perspective of the individual following reconstructive surgery and their requirements from the surgical and rehabilitation team to improve outcomes. Her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, under the supervision of Dr. Skoretz, explored post extubation dysphagia, the impact of tracheostomy on swallowing and novel comparative medical research investigating swallowing across species.

Camilla has published a range of qualitative and quantitative research with international multi-disciplinary research teams, exploring dysphagia, tracheostomy, patient advocacy, and COVID-19 outcomes. Camilla provides leadership, management and mentorship to a large team of Speech and Language Pathologists and clinical academics. She was the 2021 winner of the British Academic Conference of Otolaryngology Allied Health Professional award and is an invited speaker at national and international conferences exploring dysphagia.

Staff
External Affiliates: Clinical
ALBERTA HEALTH SERVICES
FRASER HEALTH
Dulcie Carter

BSc MMedSci, RSLP, SLP(C)

Speech-Language Pathologist

Clinical Practice Leader, Speech Language Pathology, Fraser Health

Clinical Faculty, School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia

Reena Parhar

MSc, RSLP, CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist

Clinical Supervisor, Adult Inpatient, Surrey Memorial Hospital

Clinical Faculty, School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia

Providence HEALTH
Vancouver Coastal HEALTH
Hillary Stahl

MSc, RSLP

Speech-Language Pathologist 

External Affiliates: Academic
Dr. Sean M Bagshaw

MD, MSc, FRCPC

Professor and Chair, Department of Critical Care Medicine

Department of Critical Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and School of Public Health

University of Alberta

Scientific Director, Critical Care Strategic Clinical Network, 

Alberta Health Services, Alberta

Canada Research Chair in Critical Care Nephrology (2016-2021)

Website

Dr. James L. Coyle

PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, F-ASHA

Professor, Communication Science and Disorders and Otolaryngology

School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and School of Medicine

University of Pittsburgh

Board Certified Specialist, Swallowing Disorders

Fellow, American Speech Language and Hearing Association

Bio Link

Dr. Martin Haulena

DVM, MSc, DACZM

Head Veterinarian, Vancouver Aquarium

ResearchGate

Dr. Stephen Raverty

MSc, DVM, PhD

Veterinary Pathologist, Animal Health Center

British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture

ResearchGate

Lab Alumni
Past Trainees
Post-doctoral Fellows

Dr. Camilla Dawson, DClinP, BSc (hons) MRCSLT, HCPC

Visiting Scientist

Dr. Arlo Adams, PhD

Masters Project Students

Nicole Anger, MSc, RSLP, SLP(C)

Reana Deng, MSc, SLP(C)

Geoff Fullerton, MSc, SLP(C)

Robyn Jones, MSc, BSc

Stephanie Riopelle, MSc, SLP(C)

Julia Varanese, MSc, SLP(C)

Linda Wu, MSc, BA

Orinna Yeung, MSc, SLP(C)

Undergraduate Research Students

Hirad Nourbakhsh, UBC Integrated Sciences

Jasmine Shi, UBC Integrated Sciences

Alison Wu, UBC Linguistcs

Lee Gellatly, SFU Linguistcs

Graduate Project Assistants

Courtney K Dorman, MSc, RSLP, SLP(C)

Allison Empey, MSc, RSLP, SLP(C) 

Alannah Turner, BFA, MSc, RSLP, SLP(C)

Undergraduate Project Assistants

Harleen Kaur Hehar, BSc Candidate

Lisa Nguyen, UBC Speech Sciences

Sadul Bombuwala, UBC Applied Sciences

Matthew Wilson, UBC Computer Science

Joon Jang, UBC Computer Science

Effie Kao, UBC Speech Sciences

 Emily Klambauer, B.H.K

Yifan Sun, UBC Computer Science