People

Principal Investigator

Dr. Rochelle Newman

Chair, Dept. of Hearing & Speech Sciences
Associate Director, Maryland Language Science Center

Lab Manager

Katie Nguyen

Lab Manager

Katie joined the Language Development Lab after graduating with a B.S.A in Neuroscience and a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in May 2023. Although her interests in language development and perception are primarily with humans, she is excited to observe how canines are similar (or different) to humans and their understanding of language.

Co-Founders

Amritha Mallikarjun

Amritha Mallikarjun was a PhD student under Dr. Rochelle Newman from 2014-2020, where her interest in speech perception and auditory processing in dogs drove the formation of the Canine Language Perception Lab in 2017. She graduated with her PhD in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science in 2020. Her thesis research focused on the impact of ambient noise in the environment on speech perception and word learning in infants and dogs. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, working on studies involving canine cognition, olfaction and scent detection at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.

Emily Shroads

Emily Shroads was a previous lab manager for the Language Development and Perception Labs from 2015-2017. She was also the co-founder of the Canine Language Perception Lab. Prior to her role as a lab manager at UMD, she graduated with a BA in Linguistics and a BA in Computer Science from Duke University. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Toronto.

The Canine Language Perception Lab is also associated with the Language Development and Perception Laboratories and with the Brain Injury and Language Development Laboratory. Undergraduate RAs who are a part of the Canine Language Perception Lab are also a part of the Language Development and Perception Laboratories.

Undergraduate Students
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Megan Baranowsky

Class of 2025

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Abigail Poulton

Class of 2024

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Yvette McQueen Sanchez

Class of 2025

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Raeann Carpenter

Class of 2024

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Sasha Sweat

Class of 2024

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Catie Valentino

Class of 2026

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Shevi Lerner

Class of 2026

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Tate Yuen

Class of 2024

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Morgan Stolker

Class of 2026

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Nithya Doodi

Class of 2025

Alumni
  • 2023: Hannah Burchard, Annie Harris, Rachel Horan, Amy Gionfriddo, Jia-Rong Tsao
  • 2022: Emily Shroads, Laura Grant, Nada Babaa, Jillian Weinman, Emily Trujillo, Ivy Huang,
  • 2021: Karen Mulak, Amanda Giordano, Micheala Ehm, Ellie Koroulakis, Kaliyah Gowing, Kavya Ganesan
  • 2020: Brittany Jaekel, Amritha Mallikarjun, Emma Peterson, Sarah Cavanaugh, Christina Tyner, Jennifer Lee, Chris Taho, Shrujana Kunnam, Kayla Whitlock, Rhea Bhunia
  • 2019: Katie Von Holzen, Rebecca Wolf, Tiara Booth, Kelly Puyear, Daniella Otarola, Ashley Jahed, Rachel Egan, Andrew Morris, Melanie Danso, Jason Wright, Nathan Boyle, Lian Wang, Nicolette Contella, Leila Hagopian, Eva Johnson, Rachel Kirkpatrick
  • 2018: Matthew Tiberino