Our Team

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 B.A. 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 alumna 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 currently a first year M.A. candidate in the Speech-Language Pathology program at SDSU’s School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. She grew up in South Central LA, surrounded by communities of diverse cultures and languages. Growing up as a bilingual Spanish-English speaker she saw the importance of maintaining her heritage language to connect with her family and her culture. In her journey to becoming a bilingual clinician, she wants to help families feel represented and encourage the use of the languages they speak. She hopes to support underrepresented communities and provide services that are culturally/linguistically appropriate for each client.

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.

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.

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.

Luella is an undergraduate student studying kinesiology with a minor in food studies. She began learning Spanish in preschool, and has been enrolled in dual-language schools since then. Working at a daycare throughout high school sparked her passion for working with children, and she hopes to integrate this with her bilingual education to learn valuable skills in the BDC lab.

Gisselle is an undergraduate at San Diego State University studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Before coming to San Diego State Gisselle worked in a preschool, with ages ranging from 2-5. That is where her passion sparked for working with children. She finds the SLHS field to be very interesting and is looking forward to learning more about it. As a bilingual person she is very excited and eager to be a part of the BDC Lab and work with children within our community.

Mia Mangney is a senior at San Diego State University studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Spanish. She is a sequential bilingual, who started to learn Spanish in school when she was thirteen years old. During her time in undergrad she studied abroad for the 2023 spring semester at Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is determined to use what she learns during her time in the BDC lab in her future career as a Spanish-English bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist.

Chau is a first year B.S. candidate in the Biology with an emphasis on Marine Biology program at SDSU. She grew up in Vietnam, in an area where most of her peers are Vietnamese-English bilinguals. This fosters her interest in studying Vietnamese culture and language, especially after coming to the United States as the matters provide her a connection to home. Although her career goal is to join the marine research force and teach Marine Biology to university students, she’s enthusiastic about joining the BDC Research team to support Vietnamese bilinguals.

Sabrina is an undergraduate student studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. She is a junior transfer student who wanted to learn more about the aspects of clinical practice research in her field of study. Being a part of the BDC Lab allows her to combine areas of interest in relation to gaining more knowledge about the field, working with children, and having more exposure to her Vietnamese language, culture, and community.

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.

Tran Pham is a junior undergraduate student in Marketing with a minor in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) and Management Information Systems. She was born in Vietnam, making her an international student. One of her hobbies is hanging out with friends and learning about other cultures through cuisine and festivals. As a member of the BDC Lab, Tran works as a Research Assistant, where she talks with children and investigates their language development through interviews and transcribing data. She is very excited about the project she will be working on this semester and looks forward to receiving guidance from other RAs and her project leader. Her ultimate goal is to work as a marketing analyst at a marketing agency.

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.