Sarah Schneider

is Associate Professor and Speech Pathology Director in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California San Francisco. She is Co-Director of the UCSF Voice and Swallowing Center where she practices interprofessionally providing clinical care across the spectrum of voice and upper airway disorders. In addition to lecturing nationally and internationally, she has authored several publications. Special interests include professional and performing voice, gender affirming voice care, and spasmodic dysphonia/tremor.

Preeti Sivasankar is Professor and Department Head of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, and Assistant Vice-President of Research for Strategic Health Research at Purdue University. She holds courtesy appointments in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University and the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research program focuses on the voice and upper airway pathophysiology and has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2008.

Professor Sivasankar is a Fellow of the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association and an Associate Fellow of the American Laryngological Association. She is past Associate Editor and past Editor of the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. She is a recipient of teaching awards including the department Outstanding Undergraduate Instructor and the College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. Preeti’s  engagement with ASHA and recent role on their International Issues Board (IIB), as well as her own intercultural experiences and close relationship with SLPS in India, bring valuable perspectives to the Voice Committee .

Amanda Prachali holds a BSc in Speech & Language Pathology and a MSc in Voice Pathology. She is passionate about helping patients achieving the best possible quality of life as well as her team members reaching their full potential within the profession.

Amana was the Supervisor of Speech Language Pathology and instrumental in the activation of the first Voice and Swallowing clinic in the UAE, within Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Prior to that she was part of the founding team of the first private multidisciplinary Voice and Swallowing clinic in Athens Greece.

Over the last years Amanda has created and supported Graduate Trainee education programs for young professionals, has contributed to professional medical books on Voice Pathology in Greece and participated in Research protocols related to Swallow and Communication disorders in Respiratory and Neurologic population in the UAE.

Her clinical interests include voice disorders, care of the professional voice, aerodigestive tract disorders, and laryngectomee rehabilitation, as well as swallowing disorders in Head and Neck and Neurologic patients.

Caitriona Munier is a Speech Pathologist specialised in the diagnosis and treatment of voice problems. She holds an M.Sc., in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Pennsylvania State University and her CCC from ASHA. She also has a Master of Business from Smurfit School of Business, University College Dublin. She gained her clinical experience in the ENT Department of the Geneva University Hospital where she was head of Phoniatrics and conducted research with Professor Klaus Scherer at the University of Geneva, on Voice and Emotion, Personality, and Coping. Caitriona was awarded the Van Lawrence Prize by the British Voice Association in 1999 for her work on the relationship between voice and emotion. She has also completing an M.Sc. in Performing Arts Medicine at University College London.

Caitriona’s areas of interest include understanding how influences like stress, emotion, personality, individual perception, and coping strategies have an impact on the voice and believes working conditions, occupational stressors, interpersonal workplace relationships, and comorbiditiies must be taken into account. She is driven to understand the role these variables play in the development of voice problems. She believes, you can’t separate the voice from the person, and in the Biopsychosocial approach in the management of Voice Disorders in both occupational voice users and the performing artist.

Dr Kaneko works clinically at Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University Hospital. She graduated from Osaka Isen College, speech-language pathology (SLP) course in 2006 and worked as a SLP at Kyoto Katsura Hospital (2006 to 2010) and at Department of Otolaryngology, Kyoto University Hospital (2010 to 2017). She received a Masters Degree from the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University (2015) and then a Doctoral Degree of Medical Science (2019) at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, both under the mentorship of Prof. Shigeru Hirano.

Current interest in research: basic science on biology, pathology, and regenerative medicine in laryngology and voice. Physiological research for voice therapy.

Maria Dietrich, PhD, CCC-SLP, Diplom-Sprachheilpädagogin is a Research Associate at University Hospital Bonn in Germany in the department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. She directs the Vocal Control and Vocal Well-Being Lab (VoCoWell Lab) and the specialty outpatient clinic for functional voice and swallowing disorders in the same department. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Missouri and University of Memphis. The VoCoWell Lab focuses on how individuals differ in their vocal control and vocal behavior as a function of stressor exposure and personality and the resulting implications for risk for voice disorders. Research methods encompass basic and clinical voice science and psychophysiological and neuroimaging methods. In addition to studying vocal control in vocally healthy individuals, the VoCoWell Lab studies vocal control in patients with functional dysphonia and aphonia related to functional neurological disorder, primary muscle tension dysphonia, and occupational voice users such as teachers and student teachers. The research program aims to contribute to an evidence-based biopsychosocial model of risk for voice disorders that informs innovative screening, prevention, and treatment approaches. Among many multiple professional memberships, she is a founding member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society and the newly founded German Arbeitsgemeinschaft Funktionelle Neurologische Störungen.

Evelien D’haeseleer is professor at the Center for Speech and Language Sciences at Ghent University and guest professor at the Musical Department of the Brussels Royal Conservatory.

She also works as a voice clinician at the multidisciplinary gender team and ENT Department of Ghent University Hospital. Evelien is a member of the scientific voice committees of the International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) and the European Professional Association of Transgender Health (EPATH). Her main areas of interest within voice research are transgender voice, effectiveness of voice training and voice in elite vocal performers. She published more than 80 articles in international peer reviewed Journals in cooperation with different international research groups and guides several PhD and master students in the field of transgender voice and speech sciences.