Current Lab Members

Lynn graduated from the University of California of Los Angeles and received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. She had worked for a few biotech companies and her most recent position was a validation specialist at Bavarian Nordic. Lynn is thrilled to join the BDC team and she is looking forward to contributing her research experience to the team.

Catarina graduated with a degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from SDSU. Previously, she studied and worked in child development, where she enjoyed working with various communities to foster safe and educational environments for children in the San Diego area. Growing up as a bilingual child, she continues to be eager to learn about and research multiple aspects of language development in children and how that knowledge can be applied to better help and understand young individuals. She looks forward to continuing her journey in the SLHS field and the BDC lab!

Dr. Ramos is a full-time postdoctoral fellow with the BDC Lab and a certified bilingual speech-language pathologist. She is an aluma of the SDSU SLP Master’s program and has been practicing for 15 years across various clinical settings. Her research interests include attitudes towards bilingualism and (dis)ability, assessment methods for identifying developmental language disorders in bilingual children, and implementation in clinical settings. Her dissertation focused on using language sample analysis to identify developmental language disorders in Spanish- English bilingual children.

Linh is a Ph.D. student in the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders. She grew up in Atlanta surrounded by many bilingual peers which motivates her interests in research on bilingualism in the context of communication disorders. Her research interests include language and phonological development of bilingual Vietnamese-English speakers.

Ngoc is a full-time research specialist in the BDC lab. As one of Ngoc’s hobbies, she loves to host social and cultural events with the job of being the master of ceremonies (MC) where she could speak in her Hanoi accent. This was also the reason she first joined the lab in Summer 2016 as a volunteer to record research material in Vietnamese for a research project based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Little did she know, this volunteer project led her to the opportunity of being a research assistant at the BDC lab later in 2017 and now a full-time researcher in 2021. Ngoc always finds the fulfilling feeling of giving back and contributing to society unparalleled. Thus, she is grateful for the opportunity to rejoin the lab and be involved in many great research projects benefiting the society. She is excited to unveil what the future holds for her and how she can better contribute and serve the society as a researcher.

Jide is a third-year student in the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders. Before entering the program and joining the BDC, he worked for ten years as a bilingual speech therapist in healthcare and school settings across the Bay Area and southern Arizona. His clinical and research interests center on promoting equity in early intervention access, bilingual language development, and the ethic-racial identity development of minoritized children.

Tatiana is a multilingual and bicultural life-long learner. She is presently enrolled in her second year as a PhD student in the SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders. She has worked as a Speech and Language Pathologist in Oregon, providing school-based services. Her research interests include typical and atypical language acquisition in multilingual populations and equitable assessment and intervention practices for culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Leslie is a transfer student from Los Angeles studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at SDSU. She grew up in a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood, where she felt a big sense of community. That molded her into being proud of her roots and culture, which she hopes to incorporate into her future work as a Spanish-English SLP. Her goal is to better support bilingual children and their families by providing accessible services and educating community members of the misconceptions of bilingualism.

Mindy is a M.A candidate in the Speech-Language Pathology program as part of SDSU’s School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. She was raised surrounded by multilingual and multicultural peers in Cerritos, a suburb in Los Angeles County. Her upbringing in a bilingual household has supported her interest in bilingualism and the effects on development. Her goal is to serve others as a bilingual SLP and to support her future clients in their meaningful connections with others.

Joshua is a first-year M.A. candidate in the Speech Language and Hearing Sciences program at SDSU. Growing up in a multicultural and multilingual community and household fostered his passion for language and culture, and he plans to use this interest to support multilingual and multicultural children as a speech language pathologist, especially those of communities that are underserved in the field.

Melanie is a first-year M.A. candidate in the Speech-Language Pathology program at SDSU’s School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences working towards becoming a certified bilingual SLP. She grew up as a dual language learner of Spanish and English in City Heights, San Diego. Her background ties into her interests in supporting bilingual children to connect with their roots through language, supporting monolingual Spanish families raising bilingual children, and having culturally sensitive treatments for individuals of all ages.

Elise Ramirez is a first-year M.A. student in the Speech Language and Hearing Sciences program at SDSU. She learned Spanish through a Spanish Immersion program from kindergarten to high school. After graduating with her B.A., she taught English in Spain and Costa Rica. She is excited to be back at SDSU and the BDC! Her goal is to work with children as a Spanish-English bilingual SLP.

Mia Mangney is a junior at San Diego State studying Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Spanish. She began studying Spanish in middle school and has made it her goal to reach bilingualism since then. In Spring of 2023 she studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a semester. Now that she is back she wants to use her Spanish skills to help an underserved population of people in speech therapy. Her goal is to become a bilingual Speech Pathologist with Spanish as her second language.

Thi is an undergraduate student studying Speech Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at SDSU. She grew up in Vietnam and did not start to learn English until she moved to America in her early twenties. She became interested in SLHS after discovering how few people there are to support Vietnamese speakers both in Vietnam and America.

Marisol is an undergraduate student studying speech, language, and hearing sciences with a personality and social psychology minor. She grew up speaking Spanish and attended dual-language schools, where she learned English as her second language at a young age. As a bilingual speaker herself, Marisol looks forward to working with bilingual children and their caregivers to provide services that can better aid the bilingual population.

Fatima is an undergraduate student at San Diego State University studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and minoring in Personality and Social Psychology. As a transfer student from Oxnard, California, she has been shaped by her experiences in a diverse community that has fueled her interest in the interplay between cultural, psychological, and communicative factors. She is particularly passionate about exploring how these dynamics influence bilingual language development and aims to apply her insights to support underrepresented communities.