Speakers
Elizabeth D. Peña
Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Elizabeth Peña, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is a Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Development & Diversity in the School of Education at UCI. She is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Her research focuses on two lines of inquiry that address the goal of differentiating language impairment from language difference. These two interrelated areas include dynamic assessment and semantic development in bilinguals leading to test development. Dynamic assessment tests ability to learn new language skills. In contrast, standardized tests assess what children already know. Outcomes of these efforts have resulted in publication of the Dynamic Assessment and Intervention: Improving Children's Narrative Abilities protocol and the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment test. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education.
Disclosures
Financial Disclosure: Dr. Peña receives financial compensation for her contributions in the form of an honorarium. She is a co-author of the BESA and receives a royalty for the sale of this assessment.
Non-Financial Disclosure: Dr. Peña has no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.
Xigrid Soto-Boykin
Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Xigrid Soto-Boykin is a Spanish-English bilingual SLP, researcher, and advocate. She is an Assistant Research Professor and Senior Scientist of Bilingual Learning at the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. Her work focuses on how to bridge research, policy, and practice to create more equitable learning experiences for racialized, bilingual children with and without disabilities in early childhood settings. She has worked as bilingual SLP in clinical and school-based settings, is a writer for The Informed SLP, and a recipient of the 2020-2021 Multicultural ASHA Award. She also is the founder of habladll.org which contains resources for parents, teachers, and SLPs working with bilingual children.
Disclosures
Financial Disclosure: Dr. Soto-Boykin receives financial compensation for her contributions in the form of an honorarium.
Non-Financial Disclosure: Dr. Soto-Boykin has no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.
Taína Jiménez López
SLP.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Taína Jiménez López is a certified and licensed bilingual speech-language pathologist residing in Puerto Rico who primarily works via teletherapy with culturally and linguistically diverse school age children with various communication disorders. She received her Doctoral Degree (SLP.D) from Nova Southeastern University in Speech Language Pathology. Her research focuses mainly on clinical supervision. She has worked primarily in the school setting as a clinician in the states of Massachusetts, California, and Washington. Dr. Jiménez López also has experience working in the academic setting and in a rehab hospital. Currently she is Bilingual Therapies Clinical Director and supports bilingual clinicians who are starting their careers in the school setting and clinicians who transition to the telepractice model.
Disclosures
Financial Disclosure: Dr. Jiménez López receives financial compensation as an employee of Bilingual Therapies.
Non-Financial Disclosure: Dr. Jiménez López has no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.
Pedro Olvera
Psy.D.
Dr. Olvera is a published writer and teaches coursework at Cal Baptist University (Riverside, CA) in the areas of assessment of ELLs, cognitive assessment, and enhancing collaboration with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families. In addition, he provides clinical support and professional development support with Bilingual Therapies for clinicians in tele-practice. Dr. Olvera has been a bilingual school psychologist in public and private settings for over 21 years.
Disclosures
Financial Disclosure: Dr. Olvera receives financial compensation as an employee of Bilingual Therapies.
Non-Financial Disclosure: Dr. Olvera has no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.
Nidhi Mahendra
Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Nidhi Mahendra is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences at San José State University (SJSU). A multilingual, triliterate, and internationally trained speech-language pathologist, she directs the Spartan Aphasia Research Clinic (SPARC) and co-directs the Healthy Development Community Clinic in San Jose. Her areas of expertise are equity issues in speech-language pathology and audiology writ large, language rights, aging, health disparities, and neurogenic language disorders. Her research is focused on investigating disparities in access to SLP services across diverse populations, addressing issues of diversity in curriculum representation, and documenting the outcomes of cognitive-communicative and life participation interventions for youth and adults with cognitive-communication disorders. Her recent research has been funded by the American Speech Language Hearing Association, the El Camino Hospital, SJSU's Lurie College of Education, and The California Wellness Foundation. She has authored/coauthored 50+ publications and 150+ peer-reviewed presentations, nationally and internationally. She received AJSLP's 2006 Editors award, ASHA's 2012 award for distinguished contributions to multicultural affairs, and was recognized as the 2019 Charles Van Riper scholar.
Disclosures
Financial Disclosure: Dr. Mahendra receives financial compensation for her contributions in the form of an honorarium. She has a financial relationship with San José State University in the form of a salary, grants and intellectual property rights, ASHA in the form of intellectual property rights and grants and the US Dept. of Education in the form of consulting and speaking fees.
Non-Financial Disclosure: Dr. Mahendra has non-financial relationships with Aphasia Access, Speakaboo app, ASHA’s CRISP committee and ASHA’s Special Interest Group 14.
Genesis D. Arizmendi
Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Genesis D. Arizmendi is a Provost Early Career Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, with appointments in Special Education and the Texas Center for Equity Promotion. She is certified and licensed bilingual speech-language pathologist who has served students and patients across the Southwestern United States, from Arizona to New Mexico and Texas. She earned her PhD from the University of Arizona in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences in 2019 and completed an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Educational Psychology. Her research focuses on the development of learning processes and learning disabilities in Spanish-English learning children, with the goal of improving assessment and intervention practices to remediate educational and health inequities in this community.
Disclosures
Financial Disclosure: Dr. Arizmendi receives financial compensation for her contributions in the form of an honorarium.
Non-Financial Disclosure: Dr. Arizmendi has no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.