Voice and Swallow Lab Added to Speech-Language Pathology Grad Studies

By Howard Dukes

The journey that led Catherine Reynoso ’25, ’26 to the Masters in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program has familiar elements. 

Reynoso, who majored in SLP as an undergraduate at Saint Mary’s, had an interest in helping people in a healthcare setting, she just wasn’t sure how. Confirmation came after enrolling in a speech-language pathology course her first year at the College.

“I took my first speech class in the spring semester of my freshman year with Dr. (Susan) Latham, and I really enjoyed it,” Reynoso recalled. “I knew I could make a difference in people’s lives pursuing a career in speech-language pathology.”

Combining SLP with her lifelong interest in human anatomy would allow the studious Reynoso to work with people who suffered strokes or traumatic brain injuries to recover their speech—something that is personal to her. “In high school, my mom suffered a stroke, and I didn’t really have any information about what a stroke was or what abilities that she would be able to have post-stroke,” Reynoso said. 

Reynoso and her classmates now have a new layer of practical training in their graduate studies. The College recently opened the Voice and Swallow Lab as part of the Masters of Speech-Language Pathology program. According to Erin Connelly, graduate program director and director of clinical education in the Speech-Language Pathology program, the Voice and Swallow Lab joins the complement of services available at the Judd Leighton Speech and Language Clinic, a community resource that was established in 2014.

Clinic staff help children and adults dealing with various speech and language disorders and differences, according to Connelly. 

The new Voice and Swallow Lab is an addition that serves as both a treatment choice for patients and a way to train students and medical professionals in the community using state of the art equipment, Connelly said. 

“We are first a graduate training program,” Connelly said. “Graduate students either assist us or complete the treatments by themselves and we watch.”

Students are excited for this new layer of professional development. 

Olivia Herbst ’26 combined two seemingly unrelated disciplines when she studied neuroscience and theology as an undergraduate student at Notre Dame. However, she found a connection in the complexity and beauty of God’s creation, and says her entry in the graduate SLP program at Saint Mary’s was driven by intellectual curiosity and personal experience.

“I’ve always been really fascinated by the brain, and I think there’s an interesting connection between neuroscience and theology because if you look at the brain as the most complex thing God has created,” Herbst said. “When you really learn about it and all of its intricacies you can see what a wonder the human brain is and I think that points back to God’s perfect design for creation.”

According to Connelly, the Voice and Swallow Lab was made possible through funding from the state Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative grant (READI). The grant is a part of a multi-phase effort to strengthen healthcare education and workforce capacity in the region surrounding the College. The funding was crucial because while the department already had the space, the READI grant allowed SMC to buy the equipment.

“Specifically, we used the READI funds earmarked by (the) Speech-Language Pathology department to purchase the major medical equipment that makes the Voice and Swallow Lab possible, including our endoscopic scopes and associated technology,” she said.

Connelly added that since the services offered by the Judd Leighton Speech Clinic are free, a part of their mission is to reach patients who don't have access to the services offered by the clinic or cannot afford them in the community.

“We’re hopeful this lab will strengthen partnerships with ear, nose, and throat physicians in the region—particularly by creating a referral pathway for patients who can’t afford, or don’t have access to, high-quality voice and swallowing assessment and treatment. At the same time, it gives our graduate students meaningful, hands-on training with the same kind of equipment and processes they’ll encounter in clinical practice,” Connelly said.

The ultramodern devices used in the lab allows students to receive training on campus that previously they did not receive until they left SMC to do clinical internships or later on in their careers.

Grace Ruiz, a clinical instructor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, and practicing speech-language pathologist, works with adults who are struggling with speech, language, swallowing, voice, and cognition for stroke, TBI, dementia, and other laryngeal and neurologic diseases or disorders. She can provide families with strategies that can be used at home to assist with memory.

“For example, if they’re having a hard time remembering their children or grandchildren‘s names we can make a memory book, so that in those moments when they forget they can go to the book and see the picture,” Ruiz said. 

Having access to the equipment will give SMC graduate students a leg up in the job market because they gain hands-on experience with the tools and clinical workflows they will see in hospitals and outpatient settings, according to Connelly.

The Voice and Swallow Lab offer another advantage to patients. Videofluroscopy is the most utilized instrumental assessment for swallowing difficulties. Patients are asked to eat and drink various consistencies like pudding or water, and clinicians use a moving xray to see the mechanics of the patient's swallow. 

However, the disadvantage of xray technology is that radiation limits how long the exam, like a swallow study, can last. The three handheld devices in the College’s new Voice and Swallow lab won’t have that problem. The three devices come equipped with a camera that projects images of a patient’s nose, throat, windpipe, and esophagus onto a computer where the clinician can look at the throat or the vocal cords and watch the mechanics of the patient’s swallow free of radiation.

“If we’re able to go through the nasal passage and view the larynx from above, we can have (the patient) do all sorts of speech tasks and get a more robust evaluation of their everyday voice or swallow function,” Ruiz said.

Graduate students in the speech and language pathology program will observe their professors conduct examinations using the devices. The students will learn proper infection control measures and how to insert the devices in the nasal cavity to look at the larynx, according to Connelly. 

Herbst said that receiving training in the lab gives her a chance to turn theory into practical use. “Last semester I was enrolled in a swallowing disorders class,” she said. “The lab is a good opportunity to put into practice everything that I’ve been learning about in the classroom.”

February 17, 2026