Stacey Skoretz, MSc, PhD

Dr. Skoretz is a medical Speech-Language Pathologist and Assistant Professor (tenure-track) with the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. She is also Assistant Clinical Professor with the Department of Critical Care in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Rosemary Martino in 2015. Her research program focuses on artificial airways and their impact on upper airway physiology with an emphasis on swallowing function following cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and critical illness. She was awarded the Dysphagia Research Society New Investigator Award in 2012. For her entire career she has and continues to work as a clinician in quaternary-level cardiovascular, neuroscience and critical care units. This guides her work in the advancement of evidence-based practice in the field of swallowing and its disorders. She has been an invited speaker on many occasions and lecturer at both the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto. In addition to conducting research in both British Columbia and Alberta, she teaches graduate-level courses in the areas of swallowing and motor speech at UBC-Vancouver.

Heather Flowers, MHSc, PhD

Dr. Flowers is a Speech-Language Pathologist with a prior background in education and linguistics. She completed her clinical training at the University of Toronto in the Master of Health Science program. She embarked on PhD studies in the swallowing laboratory with a view to identify the co-occurrence of multiple impairments after stroke. Through her PhD research, she demonstrated the high frequency and co-occurrence of dysphagia, dysarthria, and aphasia after ischemic stroke. As part of this work, she elucidated clinical and brain-based predictors of the three impairments. The clinical objectives of her work were to promote awareness of the need for routine swallowing and communication evaluations early after stroke onset, leading to sustained management for stroke survivors. In the future, Dr. Flowers will conduct postdoctoral research aimed at implementing rapid, early aphasia screening in stroke patients. Her goal is to contribute to the development of internationally-aligned clinical paradigms for the identification and management of aphasia.

Ana Furkim, PhD, SLP

Dr. Furkim completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Swallowing Lab. She has been a Speech Language Pathologist and Audiologist in Brazil since 1990. She obtained her Master’s Degree and Doctoral Degree in dysphagia from the Federal University of Sao Paulo, and has over 25 years of clinical experience caring for patients with dysphagia in rehabilitation centres, hospitals and intensive care units. Ana organized the first specialized multi-professional dysphagia group and launched several dysphagia services at several hospitals in Sao Paulo. She has designed and delivered lectures at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels since 1999 and is currently a Professor of Dysphagia in the Speech Language Pathology and Audiology Programme at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. In collaboration with colleagues, she has organized committees in Brazil’s leading scientific societies to bring attention to dysphagia.

Victoria Sherman, MHSc, PhD, SLP

Dr. Sherman is a registered Speech-Language Pathologist (CASLPO), whose doctoral studies focusing on pediatric stroke and dysphagia deepened her theoretical knowledge to help inform clinical practice.

Throughout her PhD, Dr. Sherman was predominantly supported by the SickKids Clinician-Scientist Training program and the Swallowing Lab Stroke Scholarship. Each of her four dissertation studies have led to manuscripts published in various journals including Stroke, Journal of American Heart Association and Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, with her final PhD study under review.

Dr. Sherman’s goal is to work as a pediatric clinician-scientist in an academic hospital setting. Since defending her thesis, she has continued in both clinical and research settings. She began a new role as a Research Associate at Western University. Her new research role has exposed her to integrated knowledge translation methodology, such as concept mapping to explore improvements in outcome measurement in provincial preschool speech and language services.

Stephanie Shaw, MSc, PhD, SLP

Dr. Shaw received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Disorders and her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She worked clinically for 3 years in both the school and acute care hospital settings before embarking on her PhD. Her doctoral research focused on determining the relationship between fibrosis and chronic dysphagia in head and neck cancer patients post-radiotherapy.