Speech Language and Hearing Sciences

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder alum directs the choir dementia can’t silence

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder alum directs the choir dementia can’t silence Rachel Sauer Tue, 10/13/2026 - 07:00

Cody DeBos

Under Jacqueline McCurdy’s direction, Second Verse Choir makes beautiful music where speech science meets the singing voice

Rehearsals for the Second Verse Choir in Denver are punctuated by binders of large-print lyrics and volunteers interspersed among the singers. When Jacqueline McCurdy raises her hands, people who sometimes struggle to find words in conversation open their mouths and find them in song.

McCurdy is the choral director for Second Verse, an ensemble for people living with dementia and memory loss that recently began a new session. The background she brings to her role is rare, including a doctorate in musical arts and a master’s degree in speech, language and hearing sciences from the �鶹��Ѱ��.

More important is her science-backed understanding of what happens inside the human brain and vocal cords when music is made.

Jacqueline McCurdy is a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder speech, language and hearing sciences alumna who directs the Second Verse Choir. (Photo: Second Verse Choir)

Overcoming and rediscovering

McCurdy’s path to the directing podium of Second Verse Choir didn’t start in the sciences.

“Being a speech-language pathologist is a career change for me,” she says. “Prior to pursuing the degree, I was a classically trained singer.”

McCurdy holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa. Her on-stage career as a professional performer includes stints in opera, musical theater, orchestra solos and caroling.

However, a vocal injury while pursuing her doctorate would send her in a new direction. Wanting to better understand the mechanics of the voice, she earned a Certificate in Vocology from the National Center for Voice and Speech.

When the pandemic arrived, it introduced yet another speed bump, limiting opportunities for both teaching and performing.

“A colleague in the Opera Colorado chorus suggested I try speech-language pathology,” she recalls. “I started my leveling classes at Metropolitan State University and eventually moved to the graduate program at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.”

At �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, McCurdy found herself embracing the combination of science and music she’d been circling for years.

“I do miss singing and making music the way I had dreamed, but I have loved turning to this field. No regrets,” she says.

During her studies, she encountered research on music as a route to unlocking language centers in the brain. The story unfolded from there.

“As I had been interested in the junction of where music and speech-language pathology meet, I actually suggested starting an aphasia choir at the speech clinic at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder as a student,” she says.

As she prepared to bring that idea to her supervisor, she spotted an opening at Second Verse Choir, applied and was hired.

A different kind of rehearsal

A traditional choral director walking into a Second Verse Choir rehearsal might find the environment disorienting. The expectations are different here, but intentionally so.

The participants range widely in both experience and ability, from lifelong singers who read music fluently to those who simply enjoy singing along to their favorite melodies. McCurdy directs voices that have changed with age and strives to meet each singer where they are.

“I have to be flexible and adapt to the vocal ability to each participant and place them where they have comfort,” she says.

Volunteers who are singers themselves sit among the participants throughout rehearsals and performances to offer support. Lyric sheets ensure no one is left reliant on a memory that isn’t what it once was.

Jacqueline McCurdy (front row center) with members of the Second Verse Choir. (Photo: Second Verse Choir)

The culture McCurdy nurtures is one where imperfection is both expected and accepted.

“The focus is less on singing for perfection as it is just to sing the songs for enjoyment,” she says.

Her approach is greatly influenced by her clinical training as a speech-language pathologist.

“I merge therapeutic practices of speech-language pathology into rehearsals by using errorless learning, repetition and patient-led sessions,” McCurdy explains. “I begin rehearsals by having the choir tell me what they would like to work on before I jump into my agenda.”

From there, each song is revisited at every rehearsal, giving participants a chance to engage with the music over-and-over.

Discussions about lyrical meaning, emotional subtext and storytelling are also woven into the music-making to help participants engage on a deeper level. But the most important rule, McCurdy says, is to keep things positive and have fun.

Unlocking the power of music

Scientists have long wondered why music reaches people with memory challenges when language cannot.

McCurdy has seen it happen firsthand.

“One of the participants in Second Verse Choir commented on how sometimes she has trouble expressing herself, but with singing a song it comes out easy,” she says.

Research has confirmed that certain mental capacities are resistant to cognitive decline. Musical memory and response to music are among them, even in the late stages of dementia.

“In the world of memory loss and dementia, research has found that certain activities are resistant to decline, like enjoyment of music and musical preferences,” she says. “Singing can also have deeper benefits like improving behavior, mood and cognitive function (including verbal processing and recall of past events).”

Familiarity is another important element of her work with Second Verse. For the choir’s first concert, she made sure that even if a song wasn’t a favorite, it was at least known.

The result was easy to hear.

“I noticed a stark difference with a song in a medley that was much less familiar for the choir, taking them longer to learn and develop ease of singing. When the song was familiar, the notes came quicker, as did the rhythm and harmony,” she says.

More than singing

Of course, the mission of Second Verse Choir is about much more than the music itself. McCurdy has watched participants arrive guarded and leave transformed after the 15-week session.

“The course of this disease will not be altered by pharmacological intervention. Music, especially singing in a choir, can be an adjunct in treatment to improve mood and bring joy and it reduces loss of identity by improving the way participants see themselves and improving the way they relate to other people,” she says.

Community-building also has become a secondary benefit. As participants gather to rehearse and sing together, they build relationships with others who can relate to the difficulties of living with memory loss.

“I have watched participants grow from not really interacting with others to developing strong relationships with the other members, which has turned the group into a wonderful community,” McCurdy says.

For those who haven’t yet experienced what music can do, McCurdy has a prescription.

“Participating in making music can have a protective effect on cognitive decline—so learn to play an instrument, play in a band, orchestra, or sing in choir,” she says. “And do it as long as you can.”

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Under Jacqueline McCurdy’s direction, Second Verse Choir makes beautiful music where speech science meets the singing voice.

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Top photo: Jacqueline McCurdy (left) directs the Second Verse Choir. (Photo: Second Verse Choir)

Life is what's a-changin’

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:31:00 +0000

Life is what's a-changin’ Rachel Sauer Wed, 07/16/2025 - 07:31

Monica LaBonte, a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder alumnus and prominent Colorado musician, visits The Ampersand to discuss ski bumming, teaching, gigging to sometimes-small audiences and always finding joy in the music

Listen to The Ampersand

There are certain people who pick up a guitar or sit at a piano or stand at a microphone and you think, “Yes. That’s right. That’s where they belong.”

That’s Monica LaBonte. Her path has been winding, but the road has always been music—writing it, performing it, hearing it in the rhythms of words and speech and the cadences of life. She is at home behind a microphone in a way that lets you know she doesn't just love to sing, isn't just good at it, but was born to breathe deep and bring audiences to tears.

A 2011 �鶹��Ѱ�� graduate in speech, language and hearing sciences and a well-known Colorado musician and performer, LaBonte recently joined host Erika Randall, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder interim dean of undergraduate education and professor of dance, on "The Ampersand,” the College of Arts and Sciences podcast. Randall and guests explore stories about “ANDing” as a “full sensory verb” that describes experience and possibility.

Monica LaBonte, a 2011 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder graduate in speech, language and hearing sciences, is a well-known Colorado musician and performer.

For the record, no banjo-playing children were harmed during this conversation.

MONICA LABONTE: Before my son was born, I was a full-time working musician. I was still playing five gigs a week, and I think by the time my son came, I was ready for a break. Then the pandemic just changed the industry so much, so I think there was this natural pause in music for me at that time anyway.

It was kind of already happening, or it was about to happen. And then motherhood is just—I mean, it really turns your world upside down. So, I was ready to put my focus and energy into my son, because I discovered quickly that it was just too hard to put all the love and the time and the energy into both. I couldn't do both for some time.

ERIKA RANDALL: What did your schedule look like as a professional musician? What was touring like? What was the gigging like? What was the writing and recording like?

LABONTE: It was just all over the place. I was just a yes person for 10, 15 years, just saying yes to every gig, to every recording. I didn't do a whole lot of touring but I was part of a band for 10 years, and we did multiple recordings, and we played festivals all over the state. We did just a little bit of touring up to Oregon. We went to Wyoming one time.

RANDALL: But there was enough of a scene here in Colorado.

LABONTE: Oh, for sure. And then I've been teaching music along the way, so that's kind of—

RANDALL: Painful.

LABONTE: Kept me afloat.

RANDALL: Is it torture to teach little people how to play the banjo? I mean, that sounds like the worst job ever.

LABONTE: Well, I will say this: I really appreciate people who can teach children and do it for their whole lives. I discovered over many years of different kinds of teaching—and teaching mostly kids, I've worked with kids in lots of different ways—but I've really come to realize that I love teaching adults. And I do not teach banjo.

RANDALL: OK. Because that just isn't going to go well.

LABONTE: Yeah, I do not teach banjo. I mostly teach voice.

RANDALL: And do you ever audition them and then say no? Like if I auditioned, you wouldn't—

LABONTE: No.

RANDALL: But there's no guarantee, right? You wouldn't be like, ‘Yes, Randall, I got you. You're going to come out of here doing all the musical theater or all the gentle, angry folk that you want.’

LABONTE: I really just meet people where they are, and I don't make any promises, because it's not my work, it's their work. So, I can show them the tools, but I can't promise that anything is going to happen.

RANDALL: And we all have the tools in our bodies to do this?

Monica LaBonte (right) performs with former bandmate Bill Huston at a Mixtape event. (Photo: Monica LaBonte)

LABONTE: For sure, yeah. It's just like Ratatouille:. Anyone can cook. Anyone can sing, but it's hard work. And singing is so intertwined with the heart and the soul and past experiences. This choir teacher told me, ‘Everyone got into the choir except for me, always.’ Or, ‘My mother told me I couldn't sing.’ A lot of people have these stories. So, it's interesting because I almost have to feel—I almost have to hold a space of a caretaker or—

RANDALL: Therapist.

LABONTE: A bit of a therapist.

RANDALL: I would cry in a lesson with you.

LABONTE: I've cried so many times. It's very vulnerable. So, I will say, I have, over the years of teaching, the people who come and are willing to at least let go a little bit of their story or those walls—have their walls come down—and let go of excuses and are just willing to try, those are the most successful people.

LABONTE: Yeah. It's cool. It's such fun work. And then I have a background in speech therapy, so I have this knowledge of the actual system.

RANDALL: Is that how your degree from �鶹��Ѱ��serves you, do you think?

LABONTE: Oh, yeah.

RANDALL: The systems learning, the anatomical, the somatic. Tell me about that, because that's something that's so interesting to me. And also because I wrote about a character who was a folk singer who then becomes a speech therapist, so the character of my novel is the opposite of you.

LABONTE: Interesting

RANDALL: And the book is called Music for Leaving, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I cannot wait to give it to Monica.’

LABONTE: Cool.

RANDALL: Because it's like you, but Benjamin Buttoned. And so often when we get a major, we don't know where it's going to land us. For you, did you think that these worlds were connected, that you always wanted to be a singer and a singer-songwriter, and you were studying this in college? Or how did that work for you? Tell me about that path.

LABONTE: The path was just so messy. I took seven years to graduate college with my bachelor's because I couldn't land on one thing. And I did some world traveling in there, and I was a ski bum one winter up in Beaver Creek, and I met one of my dear friends, her name is Abby.

She brought me to a camp called Camp ASCCA in Alabama, and I became the music and arts and crafts director for this camp. It's for children and adults with disabilities, and from that job I just really fostered a love of taking care of people and being in a therapeutic role.

So, from there—and I had never had an opportunity to work with people with disabilities, so that was my first—that experience just changed my course.

RANDALL: And there were generations at this camp, they were all ages.

LABONTE: Yeah, all ages. I think it's 6 to, I don't know, 70-something. And every week is like a different age group and a different—

RANDALL: That's huge to just walk into—

LABONTE: It was wild.

RANDALL: —without prep.

LABONTE: Yeah. Oh, it was wild. And going from a ski bum to—

RANDALL: Hyper able community to a different community that has different requirements. What was the biggest thing that that job, that position, asked of you that you had to find or tap into that you didn't maybe necessarily resource yourself with before?

LABONTE: I would say it was the first time that I couldn't be selfish. And I was young.

RANDALL: Which is the perfect time to be selfish.

LABONTE: Exactly. So, I had to learn to not be selfish, and it required me to be very humble and just be so present because this population is so vulnerable, but they're so loving and so kind, and so there's a lot of magic. And it really, truly changed the course of my life.

RANDALL: So, from there you went back to school with a new focus?

LABONTE: Yeah. I declared music therapy, actually. I went to CSU, which is where I reconnected with my husband, and music therapy just didn't feel—I was like, I don't know if I want to marry these two worlds in such a direct way.

RANDALL: It's really specific.

LABONTE: It just felt too direct. I love music so much, and I loved working with people with disabilities, but I didn't want to marry the two. It didn't feel like the right fit. So, then I found the speech therapy program at CU.

RANDALL: I love that you had to go further outside. It was too close here when they were nesting organically. You're like, ‘No, no, no. I got to mix it up with my own and put a little tension between the two.’

LABONTE: Yes, add some space. A lot of people ask me, not knowing my past, ‘Why don't you do music therapy? It just seems like the obvious choice.’

RANDALL: You're like, I don't want to do the obvious choice.

LABONTE: Yeah, totally. So, I went to �鶹��Ѱ��for speech therapy, and I loved studying all the things speech. But at the same time, I was also cutting my teeth as a songwriter in Boulder. All that to say, I wasn't maybe the best student, because my passions were so divided at that point. And I was having so much fun playing music.

Click the button below to hear the rest of the conversation.

Listen to The Ampersand

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about speech, language and hearing sciences? Show your support.

Monica LaBonte, a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder alumnus and prominent Colorado musician, visits The Ampersand to discuss ski bumming, teaching, gigging to sometimes-small audiences and always finding joy in the music.

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Using both sides of brain to speak American Sign Language

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:26:43 +0000

Using both sides of brain to speak American Sign Language Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/08/2023 - 17:26

Maxwell Garby

At a talk Thursday evening, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researcher Karen Boyd spoke about two of her studies on American Sign Language (ASL) conducted with colleagues in linguistics and psychology

American Sign Language is both a spatial and visual language, meaning it uses both hemispheres of the brain. Even for something as simple as pauses, different brain functions are necessary to best communicate in American Sign Language (ASL).

�鶹��Ѱ�� researcher Karen Boyd, an instructor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, has studied which brain hemispheres are used for specific parts of the grammatical structures and pauses in ASL.

Boyd was born to deaf parents and has deaf siblings, so ASL is her heritage language. Growing up, she struggled to learn English, but had a breakthrough when she began to understand the language “not through a normal English class, but through a linguistics class,” she said at a Thursday afternoon talk focused on her research findings.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researcher and ASL instructor Karen Boyd (center, at her Thursday presentation) studies which brain hemispheres are used for specific parts of the grammatical structures and pauses in ASL.

Boyd highlighted a prominent aspect of her research: the second-language learner perceptions of spatial tracing constructions in ASL.

“There's a formal term within ASL called size and space specifiers, also known as SASSes, which help describe a person or an object,” she explained. “This study focuses on your perceptions of understanding where my hands move in space, how your brain and those hemispheres can cross and understanding what exactly you're seeing being constructed in space.

“I decided on the research topic of learning ASL as a second language and how that affects your dominant hand. While you are signing, you are required to pick one hand that acts as the dominant throughout your formation of the language. In ASL, there are signs that only require one hand, but there are also two-handed non-symmetrical signs, where your non-dominant hand stays stationary and your dominant hand is the one that moves, and two-handed symmetrical signs.”

However, Boyd noted that these differences in signs are what can cause issues for second-language learners.

“In my research, I noticed that some people would incorrectly switch their dominant hand when indicating shapes. So, why is it that the brain is switching things?”

Boyd chose to focus on the right hemisphere, the part of the brain that deals with deals with objects in space. She cited a study by her mentor, Karen Emmorey of San Diego State University, that found second-language learners struggled with their spatial awareness compared to people who are deaf.

“The brain is a phenomenal thing,” Boyd said. “You may be wondering, do hearing people use their right hemisphere? And they do, but not in the same way that I do, because I have to sign every day.”

Translating pauses

Boyd also had researched the use of pauses in both spoken English and ASL.

“Something that I noticed that was quite cool in hearing culture is called Utterance Boundary Pause,” she explained. “With spoken language, we're used to pauses in a sentence, where we use filler words such as ‘ah,’ or ‘um.’ I wanted to see what the people were looking for within these pauses and how that translates over into ASL.

“When language is involved, where there is a greater vocabulary, there are more pauses. Within spoken language, there tend to be pauses right after the end of a word. In ASL, it follows almost the same rules, except if we were to have a pause while signing, we would repeat the last signed word over and over. That's considered a pause. You can't really do that in spoken language. It is very unique.”

Boyd notes this difference in how pauses work in each language can also bring up some issues, especially when someone is speaking a blend of the two languages.

“It is important that these pauses are conveyed to students in educational settings, especially in K-12 settings,” she said. “For example, a deaf child might get a little frustrated if they’re listening to the English that’s being spoken by the teacher, and the teacher takes a pause. The interpreter will never convey that pause with an ‘um,’ or a pause, which might lead the deaf children to think that spoken language is always perfect and that they are able to speak without issue. That's not true.

“The interpreters must convey to those deaf kids that the speaker is struggling for the word to teach the child that when you are stuck trying to think of a word, it's OK, that’s perfectly normal.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about speech, language and hearing sciences? Show your support.

At a talk Thursday evening, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researcher Karen Boyd spoke about two of her studies on American Sign Language (ASL) conducted with colleagues in linguistics and psychology.

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Study finds correlation between hearing loss and cardiovascular disease

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Study finds correlation between hearing loss and cardiovascular disease Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/21/2023 - 00:00

Jaxon Parker

Researchers believe their findings will help doctors identify and treat the onset of hearing impairment for patients at risk of cardiovascular disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and some risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes are on the rise. A study published in Scientific Reports sheds new light on the issue by tracing how hearing loss is related to cardiovascular disease risk factors, highlighting the heart’s interconnection with bodily senses and opportunities for early treatment.

Rachael Baiduc, an assistant professor at the �鶹��Ѱ�� and the paper’s lead author, is the director of the Hearing Epidemiology and Research Diagnostics (HEARD) Laboratory, which investigates cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and its relationship with adult-onset hearing impairment and the inner-workings of the ear.

Rachael Baiduc is a hearing scientist with expertise in public health. She is the director of the Hearing Epidemiology and Research Diagnostics (HEARD) Laboratory.

“The inner-ear is actually a delicate structure,” Baiduc says. “It’s really susceptible to any damage from ischemia (inadequate blood supply) and hypoxia (low levels of oxygen in body tissues). It is highly susceptible to any microvascular compromise,” or dysfunction in the circulatory system of small blood vessels.

In collaboration with Eric Vance, a statistician and associate professor at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, Baiduc used data from electronic health reviews from thousands of patients at UCHealth to observe connections between CVD risks, such as diabetes, smoking and hypertension, and hearing loss.

“We developed models to understand the connection between these risk factors and hearing loss while we accounted for other potential confounders such as age, body mass index and noise exposure. We tried our best to isolate one risk factor at a time in a clinical population,” Baiduc says.

Isolating CVD risk factors helped narrow down the population of patients who are most susceptible to hearing loss: diabetics, smokers and those with hypertension.

“This study is important for people who have diabetes or hypertension, because it shows that they are at greater risk of developing hearing loss,” Vance says. “Not every person who goes to the doctor gets checked out for hearing, and yet hearing loss is a major problem.”

The study also uncovered that the association between CVD risk factors and hearing loss was more prevalent for men than women—likely because of sociocultural and biological factors—but that the association was found to be significant in both sexes.

“There are sociocultural differences in men and women in terms of their exposure to risk factors for hearing loss as well as cardiovascular disease risks. For example, men are more likely to be smokers than women, and lifestyle factors such as smoking and diet choices do play a role” in CVD risk and hearing loss, Baiduc says.

On the biological side, the study notes that hypertension does not appear as a significant risk factor in women for developing hearing loss. Researchers’ hypothesis for this is that estrogen provides protective effects against toxicity and other potential damages to the ear.

The connection between cardiovascular and hearing health usually surprises experts, but Baiduc and Vance hope their research will make an impact on medical research and health care communities in identifying and treating the onset of hearing loss for populations with CVD risk factors.

Even when I go to conferences and talk to a variety of folks from cardiologists to endocrinologists, a lot of them are not aware of this connection at all between smoking, diabetes and hearing loss. The first step is to educate healthcare professionals and diabetes educators.”

“Even when I go to conferences and talk to a variety of folks from cardiologists to endocrinologists, a lot of them are not aware of this connection at all between smoking, diabetes and hearing loss,” Baiduc says. “So, the first step is to educate healthcare professionals and diabetes educators.”

“In terms of the big picture, just making general practitioners aware of this connection with their patients with one or more of these risk factors and encouraging them to get hearing screenings over time would be really important, especially those with diabetes; that’s the big one right now that stands out,” Baiduc says.

For Vance, who is the director of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (LISA), their research exemplifies how the collaboration between data analysis and medical research can benefit humanity.

“There are a lot of things about the body that are interrelated that we don’t quite understand. We’re still discovering and learning about ourselves,” Vance says. “It’s really important to have collaboration between statisticians and medical experts, since it allows us to understand from a large collection of patients what’s really going with the human body and why.”

Since their collaboration, Baiduc has published a new study in Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology about the relationship between hearing loss and CVD risk factors in African Americans.

Researchers believe their findings will help doctors identify and treat the onset of hearing impairment for patients at risk of cardiovascular disease.

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Doctor’s diagnosis for the Earth: a terminal human malignancy

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 22:02:54 +0000

Doctor’s diagnosis for the Earth: a terminal human malignancy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/08/2022 - 15:02

Clay Bonnyman Evans

In Homo Ecophagus, physician with �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder ties sees humanity devouring itself—and the planet

“At the moment,” writes Warren Hern, “we are the most misnamed species on the planet: Homo sapiens sapiens—‘wise, wise man.’ Not.”

Hern, 84, physician, long-time abortion-rights advocate and adjunct professor of anthropology at the �鶹��Ѱ��, thinks the name he coined for his new book provides a much more accurate description of humanity in the 21st century.

“I propose that the new scientific name of the human species be Homo ecophagus … ‘the man who devours the ecosystem,’” he writes in Homo Ecophagus: A Deep Diagnosis to Save the Earth (Routledge, 2022). “Homo ecophagus is a rapacious, ubiquitous, predatory, omni-ecophagic species that is a malignant epiecopathologic process engaged in the conversion of all plant, animal, organic and inorganic planetary material into human biomass or its adaptive adjuncts and support systems.”

At the top of the page: A pelican covered in oil, reminiscent of Homo Ecophagus' cover (Louisiana GOHSEP/Flickr). Above: Warren Hern.

Hern (Spch, Anth, Chem’61) traces the roots of the book all the way back to 1952, when he was working as a 14-year-old gravedigger in Englewood, south of Denver.

“I was standing on the hill, doing my thing and looking out north of the cemetery. Something was wrong. All I could see was the Capitol and the (Montgomery) Ward building through the brown cloud” of smog, he recalls.

Throughout his long and varied career, from his Peace Corps work in Brazil to public health work in Washington, D.C., graduate school in North Carolina and medical school at CU, he slowly came to see humanity’s unfettered population growth and voracious demand for resources as a kind of global plague, an affliction that is mindlessly, inexorably killing its host, and thus, itself.

“Maybe we are not god’s gift to creation, the flower of the universe,” Hern muses. “Maybe we are something much, much worse: a malignant process on the Earth.”

Homo Ecophagus is wide-ranging, deeply researched, full of citations—not to mention some lovely color photographs—impassioned and, despite its stark thesis, persuasive.

The first third of the book serves as a kind of mini-autobiography and roadmap to Hern’s eventual identification of what he sees as a truly existential problem. In the second third, he describes example after example of the kind of destruction being wrought on the planet from pole to pole.

Finally, he renders his grim diagnosis: humanity is a cancer, and that’s neither hyperbole, metaphor nor analogy, he argues. Hern notes, for example, that cities, like cancer:

Invade and destroy adjacent normal tissues (i.e., ecosystems);
Metastasize to ever more distant locales;
Are progressive (i.e., growing); and
Resistant to death.

The cover of Homo Ecophagus.

Citing several further similarities, he concludes that, “Human communities and human activities in general are ecophagic: they devour the ecosystem.”

“Rapid, uncontrolled growth is the sine qua non of cancer. As long as the human population is growing at all, there is no hope of solving these major ecological problems,” he says. “All the rest is secondary stuff.”

He notes that while the rate of global population growth has dropped from about 2% a year in the mid-20th century to 1% per year in the third decade of the 21st century, even at half the rate, humanity continues to grow along a “logistic, or asymptotic curve, which is the same growth curve seen in malignancies” and that (italics in original) “the declining growth rate of cancer occurs just before death of the host organism.”

“We are conducting the Anthropocene Extinction Event, and we are on our way to becoming casualties of it. Soon,” he writes. “Is that our goal?”

What, then, must we do? Hern admits he is not optimistic.

“Speaking as a physician, I would say the prognosis is not good, at least for the biosphere and the web of life as we know it, and that means extinction for us,” he writes.

But he notes that there is one key difference between humanity and cancer: “We can think and decide not to be cancer,” he says. “Right now, we are choosing extinction. But we can change what we are doing and no longer be a cancer on the planet.”

In keeping with his long-time advocacy for reproductive choice and population control, Hern suggests those concerned about human destruction of the planet vote for candidates who “don’t force women to have babies they don’t want,” who promote an “efficient economy based on good ecological principles, resource conservation instead of the next guy who wants to drill for oil in national parks” and take climate change seriously.

“We have choices to make,” he says. “We can choose to change what we are doing and not be a cancer on the planet, stop changing the biosphere irreversibly. But the longer we wait, the harder that choice is to make.”

In "Homo Ecophagus," physician with �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder ties sees humanity devouring itself—and the planet.

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AAUW awards grants, fellowships to four �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder scholars

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 23:19:44 +0000

AAUW awards grants, fellowships to four �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder scholars Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/12/2022 - 17:19

The funding will allow the scholars to pursue projects related to artists documenting ecological devastation in Southeast Asia and geopolitics in Iran, as well as for career development

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has awarded four 2022-23 fellowships and grants to scholars at the �鶹��Ѱ��. The recipients will pursue academic work and lead innovative community projects to empower women and girls.

The fellowships and grants are part of a larger $6 million award that AAUW is providing to 320 scholars and community projects for the academic year.

“We’re proud to support the work of these outstanding scholars and community leaders,” said AAUW CEO Gloria L. Blackwell. “These exceptional awardees are dedicated to making contributions in a wide range of fields. We’re impressed by their work and can’t wait to see the great things they’ll accomplish throughout their research and careers.”

The �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder award winners are:

At the top of the page: A multimedia installation, titled Dioramas for Tanjong Rimau, by Zarina Muhammad, Joel Tan and Zachary Chan that was featured as part of Brianne Cohen's research. Above: Brianne Cohen is the recipient of the AAUW's American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship.

Brianne Cohen, the recipient of the American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship, who researches art history and criticism. AAUW awarded Cohen $30,000 for her project, titled: The Emphatic Lens: Contemporary Art, Ecology and Kinship in Southeast Asia.

Cohen’s research highlights art from Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore, where local artists use photography and video to show ecological devastation in the region and to call for renewed attention to the kinship between humans and nature.

“These artists are having their works shown around the world in major art shows, but there’s still not being much written about their wonderful artwork,” said Cohen, who plans to publish a book in 2023 highlighting the art and artists.

“And the kinds of things they are doing right now is particularly pressing and timely in terms of environmental destruction in the region and thinking about larger questions of ecological sustainability.”

AAUW’s American Postdoctoral Fellowships, like the one awarded to Cohen, support women scholars who are pursuing full-time postdoctoral research. Candidates are evaluated on the basis of scholarly excellence; quality and originality of project design; and active commitment to helping women and girls through service in their communities, professions or fields of research.

A. Marie Ranjbar, the recipient of a $30,000 AAUW American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship, researches critical human rights, environmental justice and decolonial and postcolonial feminist theory by integrating feminist political geography with scholarship.

Since 2012, she has conducted research in Iran, where she examines evolving relationships between social justice movements, international institutions and global civil society.

A. Marie Ranjbar is the recipient of a $30,000 AAUW American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship.

During her fellowship, Ranjbar will be developing her book project, “From Persian Empire to Pariah State: Environmental Injustice, Racialization and Coloniality in Iran,” which examines state repression of environmental movements in ethnic minority regions of Iran.

“I am elated to be the recipient of the AAUW fellowship,” Ranjbar said.

Like Cohen, Ranjbar’s award was an AAUW American Postdoctoral Fellowship, which supports women scholars who are pursuing full-time study conducting postdoctoral research.

Lisa Peete, the recipient of an $11,125 career development grant from AAUW, is pursuing an MA in speech-language pathology. Peete’s award will provide her with financial support to attend conventions and training seminars essential to her profession and future academic goals, including pursuing a doctorate.

In an AAUW press release, Peete said it is an honor to win the prestigious award. She added that she is passionate about providing assistance to those with cognitive and phonological disorders.

AAUW career development grants like the one Peete received go to women who hold a bachelor’s degree and are preparing to advance or change careers or re-enter the workforce in education; health and medical sciences; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); or social sciences.

Neha Pazare, the recipient of an $18,000 AAUW award as part of the International Master’s/1st Professional Degree Fellowship, is pursuing a master’s in engineering. Pazare’s area of specialization is radio frequency microwave and high-speed digital design.

AAUW’s International Fellowships support women pursuing full-time graduate or postdoctoral study in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and who intend to return to their home country to pursue a professional career.

AAUW is one of the world’s oldest leading supporters of graduate women’s education. Since 1888, it has awarded more than $135 million in fellowships, grants and awards to 13,000 women from 150 countries.

Educational funding is especially important for women, given that they are disproportionately burdened by student debt, which is exacerbated by a lifelong pay gap that affects women in nearly every profession, according to AAUW. The association said its awards alleviate financial stress so women can focus on their educational and career aspirations.

The funding will allow the scholars to pursue projects related to artists documenting ecological devastation in Southeast Asia and geopolitics in Iran, as well as for career development.

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New grant provides clinical services to adults with neurogenic communication disorders

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:31:52 +0000

New grant provides clinical services to adults with neurogenic communication disorders Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/11/2022 - 11:31

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic receives grant from the NextFifty Initiative to expand clinical and therapy services along the northern Front Range

Faculty from the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences have won a $143,750 grant to provide services to an often-overlooked population along Colorado’s northern Front Range.

The NextFifty Initiative grant, awarded on Aug. 1, will fund the �鶹��Ѱ��Adult Clinical Initiative for one year as it seeks to assist adults over the age of 50 with neurogenic communication disorders—ailments caused by damage to the central or peripheral nervous system. The initiative will offer therapy services and educational opportunities to improve the quality of life for adults affected by these disorders and their caretakers. The program begins Oct. 15.

Neurogenic communication disorders hinder an individual’s communication ability through speech, hearing or language impairments. These disorders include a range of issues such as aphasia, apraxia, dysphagia and other motor speech impairments.

“We will treat the whole person,” said Jack Damico, a speech-language pathologist and one of the leading members of the initiative. “We want to give people with aphasia their voice back.”

Jack Damico is one of the intiative's leading members.

The members of the Adult Clinical Initiative plan to accomplish this through outreach programs and coordination with other medical centers. In combining resources from the Transdisciplinary Center of Aging, the Rocky Mountain Stroke Center and the �鶹��Ѱ��Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, they will be able to supply an array of services.

Services will include educational talks, screenings of neurogenic communication disorders, counseling at the Rocky Mountain Stroke Center, recovery plans, support systems, direct therapy services and group therapy work.

The initiative will employ graduate students, helping instruct those students on how to work with older clients while increasing the program’s number of helping hands. Every client can be paired with a student, said Damico. He added that instructors can teach their students how to work with transdisciplinary services.

“The work here will reintegrate subjects back into society,” said Shelley Sheppeck, the clinic director of operations and another leading member of the initiative.

Damico handled the clinical research aspect of the grant, while Sheppeck oversaw financial and administrative side of things. The two said the effort has been collaborative.

Damico has 40 years of experience researching cognitive issues and speech-language pathology. Sheppeck has an extensive background with grant writing and managing clinical faculty as well as graduate students.

The �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder speech-language program was ranked in the top 20 by the U.S. News and World Report. According to the initiative’s members, these qualities helped the �鶹��Ѱ��Adult Clinical Initiative receive funding from the NextFifty Initiative, a Denver-based private foundation that funds initiatives dedicated to improving the lives of the older adults and their caregivers. NextFifty has granted resources to a select number of university-derived programs prior to this one.

The initiative does not seek to compete with hospital aid. Instead, it aims to offer an alternative for individuals who are not insured or who experience other troubles that prevent easy access to hospitals.

Damico, Sheppeck and their colleagues hope to make the initiative self-sustaining so that it continues to provide services to older adults with neurogenic communication disorders even after the NextFifty funding is depleted.

“This is a great opportunity to extend services to a population (that is) often overlooked,” says Sheppeck.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic receives grant from the NextFifty Initiative to expand clinical and therapy services along the northern Front Range.

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Scholars in speech therapy, theater help aphasia clients stage a play

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 21:36:05 +0000

Scholars in speech therapy, theater help aphasia clients stage a play Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/03/2022 - 15:36

Clay Bonnyman Evans

They perform 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' in second �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder production, and speech therapist notes that doing this in front of an audience ‘just blows me away’

At the end of Ronald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—and the no-less iconic 1971 film version, Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder—Charlie Bucket is the only child remaining after a wild tour of the manic chocolatier’s magical factory.

The other four children who received “Golden Tickets” to join the tour have all been literally thrown away, flushed away, shrunken or inflated and turned blue, punished for succumbing to their ingrained bad habits. Wonka rewards Charlie, the only well-behaved, polite and unselfish child, by giving him the entire factory.

Though presented as dark, knowing comedy on both page and screen, and beloved for generations, the novel’s ending is also starkly uncompromising.

At the top of the page and above: Client actors in a therapy group for aphasia, a neurological condition—often caused by stroke—that impairs the ability to speak and understand language, perform in a theatrical production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (top photo by Christina M. Riseman).

So when clients from a �鶹��Ѱ��’s therapy group for aphasia—a neurological condition, often caused by stroke, that impairs the ability to speak and understand language—performed the play on June 26 and 27, they devised an alternate ending.

“They constructed the end of the play to be much more inclusive than the actual movie or book,” Gerland says. “It was really special and quite beautiful.”

The cast of nine even wrote a crucial response for Charlie when (Willie Wonka) asks what he wants to do with the factory: “Can I share it?”

“The clients decided they would like to bring everybody back … so (the characters) could share what they learned from the process,” says Oliver Gerland, associate professor of theatre and dance and chair of the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the second play performed by actors from the therapy group, following 2019’s The Wizard of Oz. Christina Riseman and Holly Kleiber, clinical faculty members and speech therapists in speech, language and hearing sciences, initially approached Gerland about putting on a play, inspired by similar Chicago’s Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment, where drama therapy has improved client communication and mood, and the Adler Aphasia Center in New Jersey.

The idea, in part, was to help people with aphasia gain confidence in communication and other skills that translate from stage to the rest of their lives, says Gillian Nogeire, a theatre and dance PhD candidate who played an integral role in both productions and defended her dissertation on using theatrical practices as an intervention for aphasia in April.

Nogeire began working with clients on the second production during the summer of 2021, exploring four potential stories to perform: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Lord of the Rings, Romeo and Juliet and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The group played scenes from all four and eventually settled on Dahl’s classic tale.

“It’s really important to our group that the play not be about aphasia,” says Nogeire, who will graduate this summer. “The Adler Center is doing plays that aren’t about aphasia, and that aligns with the … ‘life participation’ approach, which helps (clients) to develop skill sets they can use in their outside lives, where aphasia is not the focus.”

Three new actors from the program joined six Oz veterans for the new production.

“We had a lot of the same actors … and it felt like they could take on more of a leadership role and become more involved. They were more comfortable in coming up with the story itself and speaking out—‘How about we try this instead?’” Riseman says.

The whole Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cast and production team.

Indeed, cast members weren’t shy about asking for more lines or creatively solving technical issues, for example, when the group reworked the comeuppance character Mike Teavee. In the novel and film, he is shrunken to the size of a chocolate bar through a bit of fanciful technology, but the group conjured a more believable scene in which Mike is “disappeared” through an Old West-style showdown with Wonka. What’s more, when the actor playing Mike was not able to perform, the daughter of the actor playing Wonka was able to step in at the last minute.

“The actors literally came up with that the day before the performance,” Gerland says. “We are growing a group of actors who can improvise and create in the crush of the moment.”

On the speech-therapy side of things, Kleiber says the evolving nature of the production and its various challenges echoes the reality of human interactions and conversation beyond the stage, in the real world where clients live.

“I hope folks feel like they are better communicators at the end of this,” she says. “This is what conversation is. You don’t know what the other person is going to say, and it’s important to be able to improvise in the moment.”

The new production was funded in part by a donation from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Nature, Environment, Science and Technology Studio for the Arts, or NEST, a network of centers and other campus units that combine artistic practice and scientific research to explore modes of communication.

I hope folks feel like they are better communicators at the end of this. ... This is what conversation is. You don’t know what the other person is going to say, and it’s important to be able to improvise in the moment."

Students in both departments participated in the production, helping the actors prepare in myriad ways, from running meetings to working scenes.

“Our role was to use strategies we’ve learned to work with (clients) to help them refine their skills in the play,” says Arielle Stein, who is studying speech language pathology and worked on the production as a graduate clinician. “Whether we were giving cues or helping them come up with lines, we were just encouraging them to learn how to communicate in a different way and to gather confidence to communicate … using gestures more, making your voice louder.”

When they performed before an invited audience of friends, family and members of the production team, clients got the boost that every actor is looking for, the rush and exhilaration of being onstage, pushing through any jitters they may have had.

“In that moment, they forget there is anything wrong,” Riseman says.

And all their hard work paid dividends both on and off stage.

“The heart of this group … is incredibly supportive of one another. One person’s successes are everybody’s, one person’s struggle is everybody’s struggle,” Kleiber says. In the rest of their lives, “they are vulnerable every day. Every time they try to communicate, they might expect trouble. To do that in front of an audience just blows me away.”

They perform 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' in second �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder production, and speech therapist notes that doing this in front of an audience ‘just blows me away.’

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Seventeen students are named 2022 Van Ek Scholars

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 19:56:20 +0000

Seventeen students are named 2022 Van Ek Scholars Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/28/2022 - 13:56

The award, considered one of the College of Arts and Sciences' highest honors, is given to students for academic achievement and service

The College of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Jacob Van Ek scholarship, one of the college's highest honors, to 17 exceptional undergraduates.

These students were nominated by faculty at the �鶹��Ѱ�� for their superior academic achievement and service to the university, the Denver and Boulder communities, or larger national and international communities. The five-person Van Ek Scholars Award committee selected the winners, who receive a $230 award and a certificate of recognition.

They have done so much for the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder community, as well as in their respective communities."

"We had amazing nominations submitted from faculty this year," says Brenda Navarrete, scholarship coordinator in the College of Arts and Sciences. "They have done so much for the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder community as well as in their respective communities."

"They are very deserving, and I am excited to see the amazing things they will achieve after graduating!”

The award is named for Jacob Van Ek, who arrived at �鶹��Ѱ��as a young assistant professor shortly after earning his doctorate at what is now known as Iowa State University in 1925. Within three years he was a full professor and, by 1929, he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts, serving until 1959.

The following students are this year’s Jacob Van Ek Scholar Award recipients:

Areyana Janae Andrea Proctor, journalism
Elicia Azua, psychology
Evi Judge, linguistics and speech, langauge and hearing sciences
Jack Barker, environmental studies
Julia Hoa Leone, international affairs and Jewish studies
Kelila Rose Fitch-Cook, women and gender studies
Kathryn Hoesly, Chinese
Leen Salah Eldin Abbas, integrative physiology
Mackayla Coley, political science
Morgan Knuesel, physics and mathematics
Megan Lenard, psychology and sociology
Michelle Tracy Leung, environmental studies and ecology and evolutionary biology
Nicole Bouzan, molecular, cellular and developmental biology
Noopur Naik, molecular, cellular and developmental biology
Ruth Woldemichael, ethnic studies and international affairs
Sophia Choubai, integrative physiology
Ty Donovan McCaffrey, ecology and evolutionary biology

The award, considered one of the College of Arts and Sciences' highest honors, is given to students for academic achievement and service

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Rita S. Weiss, speech language pathologist, dies at 99

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 22:40:42 +0000

Rita S. Weiss, speech language pathologist, dies at 99 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/08/2021 - 16:40

Launched program to improve language development in young schoolchildren, served as associate dean of College of Arts and Sciences

Rita S. Weiss, a University of Colorado speech and language pathology professor who developed a special program to improve language development in young schoolchildren, died May 29, 2021, in Boulder. She was 99. The program, INREAL (Interreactive Language Learning), has been used in schools in more than 33 states and several foreign countries.

Rita S. Weiss in an undated photo with her husband, Lawrence G. Weiss, also a faculty member at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder

Born in Newark, NJ on Jan. 5, 1922, she was the daughter of Joseph and Dorothy Hochberg Shapiro. She received an undergraduate degree from Simmons College and her master's and PhD from the �鶹��Ѱ��. In June 1942, she married Lawrence G. Weiss in Boston.

She moved to Boulder in 1954 and worked as a speech pathologist at the Laradon Hall School for Exceptional Children in Denver. She then played a major role in expanding the speech therapy program in the Boulder Valley Public Schools.

She joined the �鶹��Ѱ��faculty in 1960 and was associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the time of her retirement in 1987.

Her INREAL program, financed by a series of federal grants, involved working with the language problems of children in their regular classrooms instead of removing them for individual therapy. Under the program, hundreds of school teachers and specialists received INREAL training in reactive teaching and therapy techniques.

She was a former president of the �鶹��Ѱ��Retired Faculty Association and a member of the Advisory Council of the �鶹��Ѱ��Graduate School. She served for many years as a marshal at �鶹��Ѱ��commencements and was an active member of a university committee that worked to bring about improvements in �鶹��Ѱ��commencement ceremonies. She was a founding member of the Democratic Women of Boulder County and a member of the Colorado Women’s Forum and Colorado Women’s Foundation.

Survivors include: a daughter, Carolyn Judith Weiss, of Boulder; a son, Jonathan Lawrence Weiss, of Interlaken, NY; three grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband and two brothers: Eugene Shapiro, of Prairie Village, KS, and Wilbur Shapiro, of Suffern, NY.

Rita S. Weiss, a University of Colorado speech and language pathology professor who developed a special program to improve language development in young schoolchildren, died May 29, 2021, in Boulder.

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