AeroDigest 2023

AeroDigest 2023 is a free, hybrid (in-person and virtual), multidisciplinary symposium focused on aerodigestive tract anatomy, physiology, and clinical research. The aims of AeroDigest 2023 are to:

foster nation-wide and international collaborations
expand knowledge in the biological sciences
assist in closing knowledge gaps
facilitate innovations

The Symposium Program is available here.

Speakers

Dr. Moji Adurogbangba, BDS, MPH, MA (She/Her)

System Level Ethicist, Ethics Services, Fraser Health Authority

Moji was educated and worked as a Dentist before obtaining a Master of Public Health in Nigeria and a Master of Arts in Bioethics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She then earned a Fellowship in Clinical Ethics at the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. She has worked as a Clinical Ethicist for over ten years in two Ontario locations before moving to British Columbia.

Moji is currently the System-Level Ethicist at Fraser Health Authority in BC. In her current role, she promotes and advances ethical decision-making while applying a ‘diversity’ lens to developing and reviewing policies, guidelines, and strategies. She also serves as the Diversity Officer on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Bioethics Society.

Her research interests include exploring the ethics of prioritizing scarce health care resources and identifying, articulating, and addressing ethical implications of organizational decisions on patients, health care providers, and the public.

Rebecca H. Affoo, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, SLP-Reg, SLP(C) (She/Her)

Assistant Professor, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Health Cross Appointed, School of Dental Hygiene, Faculty of Dentistry

Healthy Populations Institute Flagship Project Co-Lead, Putting ‘Oral Health is Health’ into Action

Nova Scotia Health Affiliate Scientist
Dalhousie University

Rebecca Affoo a clinically certified speech-language pathologist, an assistant professor at Dalhousie University in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Health, and cross-appointed in the School of Dental Hygiene, Faculty of Dentistry. She is the Director of the Oral Health and Swallowing Research Laboratory. She is also a scholar with the Healthy Populations Institute (HPI) at Dalhousie University and a co-lead of the HPI flagship project Putting ‘Oral Health is Health’ into Action. The goal of her program of research is to improve the oral health, and speech and swallowing function of older adults through novel, interprofessional assessment and management practices.

Dr. Robert Cieri, PhD

Blue Waters Graduate Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow NSF Graduate Fellow

Dr. Robert Cieri is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia with a research focus on comparative biomechanics and functional morphology. Dr. Cieri did his doctoral work at the University of Utah on the evolution of unidirectional pulmonary airflow patterns using computational fluid dynamics in reptiles. Before moving to UBC, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, where he worked on the scaling of locomotion in sprawling tetrapods using musculoskeletal models. He also investigated spine and rib motion during ventilaiton and locomotion in lizards using XROMM video x-ray animations at Brown University. Currently, Dr. Cieri is studying adaptations for marine life in whales and dolphins, investigating how the lungs have evolved to deal with repeated collapse and reexpansion during diving, and the high flow rates associated with quick surface breaths. He is the recipient of multiple research fellowships including the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology, and the Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship.

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

Consultant Speech and Language Therapist-Dysphagia and Altered Airways, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Honorary Associate Professor, Institute of Clinical Sciences, College of Medical and Dental Sciences University of Birmingham, UK

Honorary Research Associate, School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Faculty of Medicine University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Camilla is a clinical academic Speech and Language Therapist and a professional advisor for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. She works clinically with people with head and neck cancer and people with altered airways in critical care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK. Camilla’s clinical work and research focuses on improving functional outcomes for people with swallowing problems following head and neck cancer and treatment in critical care.

Camilla completed her doctoral research at the University of Southampton and her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Camilla is a ‘Get it right first time’ head and neck cancer lead for NHS England, a mentor and supervisor for national and international research programmes, and publishes a range of data exploring swallow outcomes.

Dr. Bonnie Martin-Harris, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-S, ASHA Honors (She/Her)

Alice Gabrielle Twight Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs

Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, School of Communication

Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Radiation Oncology, Feinberg School of Medicine

Director, NU Swallowing Cross-Systems Collaborative Laboratory

Clinician Scientist, Hines VAMC

Dr. Martin-Harris is the Alice Gabrielle Twight Professor in the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery and Radiation Oncology, Director of the Swallowing Cross System Collaborative Laboratory, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. Dr. Martin-Harris’ clinical and research interests include respiratory swallowing interactions, and swallowing assessment and treatment approaches for dysphagic patients related to head and neck cancer, neurologic and pulmonary diseases. She is the Past Chair of the Specialty Board for Board Certification in Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders, and Past-President of the Dysphagia Research Society. She is Associate Editor for the Dysphagia Journal and Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. She is a recipient of the Honors from the American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) and the South Carolina Speech-Language-Hearing Association (SCSHA), recipient of the 2016 Admiral Albert J. Baciocco Innovation Award (Medical University of South Carolina), and Honorary Member of the MUSC Chapter of The National Academy of Inventors. She is the author and developer of the first standardized and validated method for videofluoroscopic assessment of swallowing impairment (Modified Barium Swallowing Impairment Profile, MBSImP), translated to clinical instruction in 158 university graduate programs and clinical practices in the US, Canada and 39 additional countries. Her work is funded by the National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH/NIDCD), the National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI), the Veteran’s Administration (VA RR&D), and Mark and Evelyn Trammell Foundation.

Dr. Stacey Skoretz, PhD, CCC-SLP, SLP(C), R.SLP (She/Her)

Director, Swallowing Innovations Lab
Assistant Professor, School of Audiology & Speech Sciences – The University of British Columbia

Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Critical Care Medicine – University of Alberta

Associate Member, Centre for Heart Lung Innovation – St. Paul’s Hospital/UBC

Affiliated Investigator, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute

Research Affiliate, Fraser Health Authority

Dr. Skoretz is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Swallowing Innovations Lab (Si-Lab) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Her research strives to enhance health outcomes following dysphagia and critical illness. Main goals of her laboratory are to: 1) investigate the integration of multiple systems during swallowing in both health and disease, 2) create a dysphagia risk profile to aid in the early identification of swallowing impairments (dysphagia) following artificial airway use, and 3) develop advanced technologies for swallowing training and research. Her investigations have been used to inform clinical practice globally and include: biomechanical and biomarker analyses, clinical practice pattern assessment, patient engagement and clinical practice guideline development for those with artificial airways. Si-Lab is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and BC Knowledge and Development Fund. In 2020, Dr. Skoretz received the prestigious Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award – an award for exceptional, early career researchers.

Dr. Wayne Vogl, PhD (He/Him)

Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology Research Group, University of British Columbia

Dr. A. Wayne Vogl is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia, and a Fellow of the American Association for Anatomy. He is an anatomist and a cell biologist who is internationally renowned for his work on Sertoli cells of the male reproductive system. He also has a long-standing interest in the anatomy and physiology of marine mammals. His graduate research involved exploring the structure and function of blood supply to the central nervous system in toothed whales, and more recently he has been part of a group investigating the biomechanics of lunge feeding in rorqual whales. Dr. Vogl consistently publishes in top journals in the field, with a total of 142 peer reviewed papers. In addition, he has published 13 invited reviews and book chapters and is an invited co-author on 4 anatomy textbooks and the associated learning aids.