On Nov. 18, several Health Professions students presented research projects at the 2022 Health Sciences Research Day. Each year, the University of Missouri provides a forum to highlight original research and educational innovations by undergraduate medical, nursing and health professions students, as well as predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees working with faculty in those units.

The day-long symposium awards prizes to the three best presentations in each of several student categories, and special Deans’ Awards recognize the most outstanding research conducted by trainees from each unit.

The Health Professions Dean’s award went to Olivia Ervie, Grace Montag, and Lexi Jacobsmeyer, all undergraduate students who were mentored by Mili Kuruvilla-Dugdale, associate professor in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences department. Their project was entitled “Developing an effective training program to improve clinical judgments of disordered speech.”

Additional Health Professions projects included:

What is the story behind the numbers? Surveilling perceptions of community members regarding COVID-19 vaccination and protocols in rural Missouri
Students: Nina Guarisco, Reyna Houston (undergraduates)
Faculty mentor: Lynelle Phillips, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Public Health

Word stimuli-driven performance deficits among talkers with progressive speech disorders
Students: Morgan Linneweh, Anna Mae Williams, Dahlia Cukierkorn (undergraduates)
Faculty mentor: Mili Kuruvilla-Dugdale

Serial subtraction by sevens significantly alters dominant limb knee adduction during lateral step-down when compared to the Stroop color-word test
Students: Jacob Thomas (PhD candidate in Health and Rehabilitation Science), Samantha Weiss
Faculty mentors: Rebecca Bliss, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and Trent Guess, associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy

The effects of an open label trial of propranolol on sociability in youth with autism spectrum disorder
Student: Anna Wendling (undergraduate)
Faculty mentor: Brad Ferguson, assistant research professor, Department of Health Psychology

Examining the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ life and their use of substances: A pilot study
Student: Omoshola Kehinde (PhD student in Social Work)
Faculty mentor: Mansoo Yu, professor in the School of Social Work

Individual Variability in Maternal Infant-Directed Speech
Faculty mentor: Nicholas A. Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Students: Riya Mahajani, Ashley Groh, Nanxi Xu