Director

Eric J. Hunter, Ph.D., Professor & Department Chair
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Eric Hunter serves as the Department Executive Officer in Iowa's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, along with the title of Harriet B. and Harold S. Brady Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences. For the last 15 years, Dr. Hunter has researched occupational voice use, particularly examining voice disorders in elementary and secondary school teachers.

Dr. Hunter earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in acoustics and vibration. His master’s thesis, which focused on designing and testing computer-generated visual aids, shifted his interest from general acoustics to speech acoustics. He completed his training in the area of speech science and received his doctorate from the University of Iowa. His dissertation topic used continuum mechanics to model vocal fold posturing.

Mark Berardi, Ph.D., Research Scientist
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Mark Berardi's academic journey began in acoustical physics, with applications in music, speech, and architectural acoustics. He earned his PhD from Michigan State University's Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, where he developed models for aging voice, vocal effort related to communication demands, and vocal fatigue. 

Following his doctoral studies, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) in Germany. Working in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy's Vocal Control and Vocal Well-Being lab (VoCoWell), he investigated the neurobiological and psychological factors associated with vocal fatigue in primary school teachers. During this time, he expanded his research scope, collaborating with UKB researchers to apply speech science and computational linguistics to psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. 

A key focus of his work is the development of computational tools for large-scale speech and voice disorders research. By leveraging data science methodologies, he aims to advance more precise and personalized therapeutic care. His long-term research goal is to combine his diverse background in acoustics, computation, and neurobiology to deepen our understanding of the complexities of speech and voice production.

Hannah Rigler, MA CCC-SLP, Clinical Research Coordinator
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Hannah Rigler holds a Master of Arts in Speech Pathology and an undergraduate degree in Spanish and Speech and Hearing Science, both from the University of Iowa. She began her career as a research assistant studying speech and language processing in adolescents with language impairment and individuals with cochlear implants across pediatric and adult populations. 

Hannah gained extensive clinical experience in pediatric outpatient rehabilitation, advancing to serve as clinical team lead at a dynamic pediatric clinic. She also worked at a start-up company that developed specialized sensors enabling acute care patients to access nurse call systems and speech generating devices. 

Currently, Hannah supports research efforts at VBAL, focusing on occupational voice users and clinical interventions for adults with swallowing impairments.