Bios

Current Students: Academic Year 2023-2024

BIOLOGY

JORGE VILLANUEVA, Biology (Cell & Molecular)
IMSD Mentor: Dwayne Roach, Ph.D.

Jorge Villanueva joined the IMSD program in the summer of 2023. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biology with an emphasis in Cell and Molecular Biology. As an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Dwayne Roach’s lab, he is investigating bacteriophage infection kinetics under different environmental conditions, as well as working on the purification of bacteriophages for therapeutic use. Following his graduation from San Diego State University, he intends to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences.

SPEECH, LANGUAGE, & HEARING SCIENCES

MAYA ELDEN, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
IMSD Mentor: Ignatius Nip, Ph.D.

Maya Elden joined the IMSD program in the summer of 2023. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Interdisciplinary Studies. Maya has contributed to the Child Language Development, Disorders, and Disparities Lab for the past two years, and this summer she joined Dr. Ignatius Nip’s Speech Physiology Lab. Within the Speech Physiology Lab, she is currently studying the influence of phonetic complexity on speech intelligibility in children with cerebral palsy. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she plans to pursue a PhD in the field of communication sciences and disorders, and eventually earn certification as a Speech-Language Pathologist.

AYDEN KPORMEGBEY, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
IMSD Mentor: Karen Emmorey, Ph.D.

Ayden Kpormegbey joined the IMSD program in the summer of 2023. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. Ayden is a member of the Laboratory For Language and Cognitive Neuroscience where she studies alternative language modalities, specifically, American Sign Language. She is currently studying the relationship between the results of the American Sign Language Sentence Reproduction Test (ASL-SRT) and working memory and scaffolding processes. Following her graduation from San Diego State University, Ayden plans to pursue a Ph.D. program in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences or Communication Sciences and Disorders and earn her Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology.