THE TEAM

In this lab, we believe:
in science
in collaboration
in lifting each other up
that diversity, inclusion, equity & social justice are requirements for excellence

Lab Director

Brielle C. Stark, PhD {she/her/hers}, is an Associate Professor in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department and Program in Neuroscience faculty at Indiana University. Dr. Stark completed her doctoral research in Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge (UK) as a Gates Cambridge Trust Scholar. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery. She is a proud alumna of Bryn Mawr College.

She was honored with the 2021 IU Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Center for Women & Technology and the 2021 IU Trustees Teaching Award. She is also a trained Peer Reviewer for IU’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching. In 2021, she was named one of four Distinguished Aphasia Scholars USA, a national award given by the Tavistock Trust UK. Brie was awarded the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for 2022-2023 from Indiana University Bloomington and a Fulbright Scholar Award for Spring 2025, to take place at the University of Technology Sydney (AUS).

Publications: Google Scholar (see our Resources page for free full text copies. If you can’t find what you want, email me!)

Expertise: Aphasia; spoken discourse; cognitive neuroscience of language; spoken discourse/narrative; multimodal communication, especially gesture; inner speech

• More information about Dr. Stark here

• An updated CV can be found here

• ResearchGate is here

• I update about academic and personal things here

• LinkedIn is here

Email: bcstark [at] iu.edu

PhD Students

Julianne Alexander (née Frye)

Julianne received her BS in Speech and Hearing Sciences and BA in Spanish from Indiana University Bloomington and her MA in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Iowa. She practiced as an SLP for the past two years, specializing in adults with neurogenic communication disorders. Julianne is pursuing a dual major in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Neuroscience. She joined the lab in Fall 2020. Julianne is a recipient of Provost’s Travel Award for Women in Science (2021), Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences Student Fellow Award (2022), Academy of Aphasia Young Investigator Travel Fellowship (2022), IU Program in Neuroscience Travel Award (2021, 2022, 2023), Larry and Marty Humes SLHS Travel Award (2023), and the New Century Doctoral Scholars Award from the American Speech, Language and Hearing Foundation in 2023, and the William Orr Dingwall Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in the Cognitive, Clinical, and Neural Foundations of Language.

Email: julifrye[at]indiana.edu

Katelyn Urena

Katelyn received her BA in Psychology with a focus in Neuroscience at the City University of New York Queens College. During her undergraduate career, she investigated the effects of statin therapy on cognitive function in zebra finches. During her undergraduate career, Katelyn participated in the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U-STAR) as well as the NIH-Bridges to Baccalaureate Training Program. She is pursuing a dual major in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Neuroscience. She joined the lab in Fall 2021. Katelyn is a recipient of the IU Program in Neuroscience Travel Award, Larry and Marty Humes SLHS Travel Award, Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences Student Fellow Award, Lion’s Club Award, Executive Dean’s Travel Award for Women in Science, and an NIH Supplement to Promote Diversity (2024).

Email: kurena[at]iu.edu

Ellie Birch

M.A. CCC-SLP - PhD Candidate

Ellie received her BA in Speech and Hearing Sciences and her MA in Speech-Language Pathology from Indiana University Bloomington. She has practiced as an SLP for five years, specializing in adults with neurogenic communication disorders. She has spent the past two years working on the Traumatic Brain Injury unit at The Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana. Most recently, she became involved in research at the hospital and completed training to administer a novel treatment protocol for patients with alexithymia post TBI. Ellie is pursuing a dual major in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Neuroscience. She joined the NEURAL Research Lab as a PhD student in Fall 2021.

Ellie is the recipient of the Larry and Marty Humes Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Travel Award (2023) and the IU Program in Neuroscience Travel Award (2023).

Email: ebbirch[at]iu.edu

Bobbi Aubrey

Bobbi received her BS in Neurobiology and Communication Science & Disorders from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined the lab in Fall 2024 as a Ph.D. student in the Program in Neuroscience. Prior to starting her Ph.D., Bobbi conducted research on language processing in conversational speech. She is interested in neural processes in aphasia patients during ecologically valid communication.

Email: boaubre[at]iu.edu

Project Administrators

Graduate & Undergraduate Research Assistants

Each year, we recruit 2-3 MA in SLP graduate students to serve as paid RAs on our projects.

Each year, we host a small handful of undergraduate RAs who contribute 8-10 hours per week, as well as a larger group of undergraduate RAs who contribute 1-2 hours per week.

Reach out if you are interested! We are absolutely willing to host students from outside SLHS, and have hosted RAs from Linguistics, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Second Language Studies, and Psychology.

Join the Lab!

Undergraduates

We have an active undergraduate volunteer sector in our lab! We accept undergraduates from all disciplines, not only from the Department of Speech and Hearing. Specific opportunities that undergraduates have in this lab:

• Acquiring behavioral and neuroimaging data

• Scoring behavioral data

• Language transcription and coding (training provided)

If you are interested in volunteering in the lab, please contact Dr. Stark (bcstark[at]iu.edu). We expect that undergraduates attend lab meeting (once every two weeks or once monthly, usually Fridays @ 2PM). We expect volunteer commitment at ~4 hours per week, which largely occurs on the student’s own time.

M.A. Students

We recruit graduate clinicians from the M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology. If you are joining us in the MA program, please reach out to Dr. Stark after you are accepted and prior to starting in the program!

PhD Students

We are likely not recruiting PhD students but exceptions may be made.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of our program, and because Dr. Stark is affiliated with the Program in Neuroscience, we recruit students from a variety of backgrounds. These backgrounds often include psychology, speech and hearing disorders / communication sciences, neuroscience, cognitive science, and linguistics.

Indiana University is a wonderful place to do a PhD. We have state of the art facilities, including a 3T MRI, EEG system and Speech and Hearing Clinic. We offer competitive funding for PhD students, which may involve teaching, being a graduate teaching assistant, or funding through related programs (e.g. American Sign Language). We encourage PhD students to apply for their own funding (e.g. NIH, ASHFoundation) throughout their tenure here, and support is offered from the mentor.

If you are interested in doing a PhD, please get into contact with Dr. Stark prior to submitting an application.

I am very interested in writing applications together (NSF GRFP, NIH F31), so please be in touch about that!

APPLYING:

Applications are generally due to Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at Indiana University in early January of each year. Please see the Speech and Hearing Sciences website for more information. Alternatively, you may apply through the Program in Neuroscience to work with Dr. Stark, and this program’s application is in early December. More information is available on the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences / Program in Neuroscience website.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Our lab is interested in language, and as such, the ideal candidate will have an established interest in, or desire to learn about, speech/language neuroscience. We are a close-knit lab comprised of undergraduates, MA and PhD students and are looking for someone who has strong interpersonal skills and a team attitude. Candidates must have a related PhD degree (e.g. Neuroscience, Psychology, Engineering, Biology, Communication Sciences, etc.), experience with programming in Matlab and/or Python and strong statistical skills. Additional experience may include analyzing discourse samples (e.g. CHAT/CLAN, PRAAT, SALT). Experience with aphasia is helpful but not required. We also collaborate with related IU labs (Sporns lab, Betzel lab) in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department.

Indiana University is an excellent and interdisciplinary research environment. Dr. Stark is part of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and is also core faculty in the Program in Neuroscience. IU is home to the Imaging Research Facility (Siemens 3T MRI, EEG SUITE), Network Institute, and Program in Cognitive Science. Additionally, Bloomington is a lovely place to live. It is a small-town (80,000 residents) that boasts great art, food and nature. It is the epitome of a college town, full of good-natured Midwesterners.  

I am happy to work with you on applying for an NIH F32 or similar fellowship!

Interested applicants can send a CV, a brief statement of interest and a relevant paper to demonstrate writing skills to: bcstark@iu.edu.

 Lab Alums

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Yanyu Xiong, Neuroimaging Research Scientist at the Alabama Life Research Institute, University of Alabama

PhD Students

Manaswita Dutta, PhD, CCC-SLP (PhD 2020) Assistant Professor, Portland State University

M.A. SLP Students

Jasmine Orr (‘20), Madison Neumann (‘20 & Honors Thesis), Susie Tanney (‘20 Honors Thesis), Olivia Strother (‘21), Darbi Ruff (‘21 & Honors Thesis), Jenna Boese (‘21), Melissa Gunlogson (Honors Thesis ‘21), Taylor Streander (‘22), Emily Jewell (‘22), Madison Igleheart (‘22), Sydney Perry (‘23), Reagan Taylor (“23), Emma Stockrahm (‘23), Peyton Nielsen (‘23), Bailey Barron (‘24), Kennedy Skipper (‘24), Prit Kaur (‘24), Nicola Santangelo (‘24), Isabel Visuri (‘24)

Honors Undergraduate Students

Caroline Cofoid (‘20), Ellen Giudice (‘21), Grace Oeding (‘22), Ally Harris (‘24), Bethany Yagoda (‘24)

Undergraduate Students

Many excellent undergraduate students have leant their time and skills! A big thank you, whether it was for a single semester, or several semesters.

Lab Administrative Members

Research Coordinator: Jenny Olmes-Stevens (2018-2019), Anne Hittson (2019-2021)

Project Manager on the ASHFoundation New Investigator Award (2019-2021): Ashleigh Doub, MA University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ‘22

Project Manager on the NIH R01 Test-Retest project: Grace Oeding, BA (2022-2024)

Visiting Members (Postbacs, Med students, etc!)

Anaelle Zimmowitch, IU Medical School student

Kamlyn Yosick, high school student gap year

Soumith Sanka, St Louis University / University of Illinois at Chicago undergraduate

More about Dr. Stark

Contact us!

If you are interested in being a research participant, please click the Participate in Research tab and contact us through that form. If you’re otherwise interested in contacting Dr. Stark or lab personnel (i.e. volunteering in the lab, pursuing a PhD or postdoc in the lab), please use this form.