Skip to main content

News & Events

Stephanie Daniels named a Communication Science and Disorders fellow

Stephanie Daniels

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association will present the award in November

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has named Associate Professor Stephanie Daniels to its 2011 class of fellows.

“Fellowship is one of the association’s highest honors,” the Rockville, Md.-based association said. “The individuals being honored have made outstanding contributions to the discipline of communication science and disorders.”

She will be honored in November during the association’s national convention awards ceremony.

Daniels, who earned her doctorate at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, joined the College this fall as a tenured professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders. For the two years prior, she served as a visiting professor in the department. Daniels also holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Daniels’ expertise is in dysphagia, the medical term for difficulty in swallowing. She is a licensed, certified speech-language pathologist and a board-recognized specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders.

Her research seeks to understand the neural underpinnings of swallowing as well as evidence-based evaluation and treatment of dysphagia in individuals with neurological disease. Recent funding through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has facilitated identification of specific brain lesions associated with dysphagia in acute stroke patients.

Her current project is focused on developing and validating a V.A.-specific swallowing screening tool administered by nurses to identify risk of dysphagia in individuals with suspected stroke. That follows an investigation to determine the feasibility of implementation of such a tool in the emergency department.

Since 2003, the Veterans Administration’s research divisions have awarded Daniels more than $1 million in grants for investigations she’s led.