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Faculty

Monique T. Mills, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL

Dr. Monique Mills

Professor
Phone: 713.743.7020
Email: mtmills@uh.edu
Office: Melcher Life Sciences M245A
Curriculum Vitae | Lab Page

Professor Mills’s research program employs mixed methods to examine the cognitive, social and linguistic resources that school-age African American children draw upon to narrate or tell stories. She directs the Child Language Ability Lab (C-Lab) which is currently engaged in projects examining narrative assessment and dialectal code-switching between African American English and Mainstream American English. Dr. Mills teaches her students about language development, language variation and research methods in communication sciences and disorders.  She believes that her utmost vocation, or calling, is to help humans thrive. In addition to her work, Dr. Mills loves being on her couch, cooking, hiking, listening to music, playing with new ideas, reading, spending time with friends and family and thrift shopping. 

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
  • Ph.D., Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
  • M.A., Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
  • B.S., Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 

Teaching

  • Code-Switching and Linguistic Justice (COMD 3396)
  • Language Development (COMD 2339)

Research Interests

  • African American English
  • Educational disparities
  • Narrative assessment
  • School-age children

For more information, view Dr. Mills’s research page and lab page.

Research Grants

(past 5 years)

  • 2023 – 2024 ASHFoundation New Century Scholars Research Grant. Listening and Learning in a Second Dialect: An Eye-Tracking Study. Role: Principal Investigator.
  • 2023 – 2024 National Institutes of Health Diversity Supplement 3R21DC019997-01A1S1. Language Processing in Children and Their Parents. Role: Principal Investigator. 8/21-2023 – 8/20/2024.
  • 2022 – 2024 National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIH/NIDCD) 1R21DC019997-01A1. Dialect Detection in School-age Black Children: An Eye-tracking Study. Role: Principal Investigator.

Selected Publications

(for full list of publications, see CV and Google Scholar profile)

  • Mills, M. T., Moore, L. C., & Ford, D. Y. (2026). Reconceptualizing verbal intelligence: Perspectives from gifted and talented Black elementary students and teachers in urban schools. Urban Education, Online First, 1-37, 00420859261433984.
  • Scrivner, S. A., Lee, G., Moore, L. C., & Mills, M. T. (2026). Teachers' beliefs about child AAE speakers' language and narratives: A qualitative exploration of language beliefs and informal narrative assessment. Seminars in Speech and Language, 46(4), 286-307.
  • Greer, T., Lapka, S., & Mills, M. T. (2024). The influence of linguistic profiling on perceived employability: A new application of the Systems Theory Framework of career development. Career Development International, 29, 352-366. 
    Johnson, K. N., & Mills, M. T. (2023). Exploratory examination of speech disfluencies in spoken narrative samples of school-age bidialectal children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 32, 1182-1194. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-21-00158 
  • Mills, M. T., Moore, L. C., Chang, R., Kim, S., & Frick, B. (2021). Perceptions of Black children’s narrative language: A mixed-methods study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 52, 84-99. Editor's Award. https://pubs.asha.org/doi/full/10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00014. 

Honors

  • Visiting Academic (Short-Term), Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, 2026
  • Fulbright Specialist, 2026-2029
  • Teaching Excellence Award, University of Houston, 2024
  • 1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America, The Community of Scholars (January 2021) http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/1000-inspiring-black-scientists-in-america  

Professional Activities

  • Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel, NIH, Spring 2024-
  • Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM), NIH, Fall 2022, Spring 2026 
  • ASHA Convention Co-Chair, Language and Learning in School-age Individuals, 2025
  • Guest Editor, Clinical forum on Child African American English & Creole, Seminars in Speech and Language
  • Supporting Black Children's Language Literacy and Joy, Convener