Past Members




Asli Hersi

Asli has a BSc from the University of Toronto in Biology and Physiology. She has a passion for academia and hopes to pursue a doctorate in neuroscience, specifically regarding neurological development & disorders. After becoming a scientist, Asli hopes to return back home to Somalia and help the redevelopment of the country's education and healthcare system, while (hopefully!) contributing to the world of science. In her free time, Asli enjoys spending time outdoors and hanging out with family and friends.

Becky Gross

Becky has a BSc from the University of Toronto where she studied Psychology, Neuroscience, and German. She is interested in clinical research, specifically the intersection of substance use and developmental disorders. In the future, she is hoping to pursue graduate studies in clinical psychology.

Bowrnamy Senthilrajah

Bowrnamy has a BSc from the University of Toronto where she studied Health & Disease, Psychology and French.  Growing up, she always had a deep fascination for the different languages and cultures of the world, trying to learn as many as she can,  including English, Tamil, French, Spanish, Pashto and Portuguese. Her passion for learning also translates to the sciences, especially the biological and psychological mechanisms of child development.  She hopes to use her love for children and background in cognitive development to improve current school curriculums in ways that accommodate children of all abilities. In her spare time, Bowrnamy loves to take and edit photos, create music, play sports and spend time with her family.

Brianna Guild

After a long career of thumb sucking, Brianna decided to pursue her interest in science. She graduated from the University of Guelph in 2017, with a B.Sc. Biochemistry (Co-op) degree and a minor in Psychology: Brain & Cognition. She worked in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph as a Research Assistant and has several publications. Brianna discovered her interest in Speech-Language Pathology by volunteering with multiple group programs for preschool children with language and communication disorders. Brianna is now in her first year of the MHSc Speech-Language Pathology program at the University of Toronto, and aspires to continue working with children as a Speech-Language Pathologist.

Brittany McCaig

Brittany is a Speech-Language Pathologist currently working with both adult and child populations. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Master of Health Science in Speech Language Pathology program. She also completed her undergraduate degree at Carleton University in Linguistics and Discourse studies. She has always had a passion for helping others and a special interest in child development. When she is not working you can find her spending time with friends and family, baking or reading!

Claire Liu

Claire is a Speech-Language Pathology student at the University of Toronto. She completed her Master’s level research training in Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University. Claire aspires to become a clinician-researcher working with the neonatal/paediatric population. Shaped by her experiences growing up trilingual in Montreal and working in infant language research, her interests currently reside in early multilingual speech development and perception. 

Gabriel Blanco Gomez

Gabriel completed a B.Sc in Neuroscience and French Linguistics at the University of Toronto in 2020.  His research interests are centred around finding the links between language, genetics, brain connectivity and developmental disorders. Currently pursuing a M.Sc in the Neuroscience Department at McGill University, Gabriel combines various research methods including EEG, fMRI and genetic sampling to better characterize language deficits in infants with autism. At the BAM lab, he collaborated  on a project that uses EEG recordings and heart rates to explore auditory attention. In his free time, Gabriel enjoys playing music and petting cute doggos.

Hayley Ostrega

Hayley is a clinical master’s student in the Speech-Language Pathology program at U of T. She is a graduate of McGill University where she studied Linguistics and Psychology. Living in the bilingual city of Montreal is where her curiosity and excitement for multilingualism flourished. Her research interests include understanding how the characterization of communication disorders and other pathologies differ in monolingual and bilinguals and how this can affect clinical intervention. Hayley's undergraduate honours thesis investigated the morphosyntax of bilingual and monolingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD), to assess whether cross-linguistic influence could benefit a child with DLD.

Jareeat Purnava

Jareeat has a BSc from the University of Toronto where she studied Neuroscience and Biology. She has a passion for research and has been involved with studies examining decision-making, mood disorders, and visual attention. She also loves languages and is interested in the cognitive neuroscience behind language processing. In her free time, you can find her reading, writing creative stories, and cooking!

Jayme Porter

Jayme is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, with a BA in Psychology, Linguistics and Practical Spanish. Jayme has always had a strong interest in language. This started with a desire to learn a second language and continued on into the field of Speech-Language Pathology after volunteering with a local Speech Pathologist prior to starting her undergraduate degree. She spent her years at Western studying Spanish, taking advantage of various study abroad opportunities, and continuing to nurture her love of Speech-Language Pathology. Jayme is now in the MHSc Speech-Language Pathology program at the University of Toronto, and hopes to expand her knowledge in the field of multilingual language development.

Jodee Santos

Jodee recently graduate from the University of Toronto where she studied Linguistics. Her interest in the field was inspired by a friend, who fascinated her with the explanation of the difference between aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops. She has worked alongside Dr. Monika Molnar, Dr. Marcel Geizen and Kai Leung on the Tweety Project. In her spare time, Jodee enjoys reading, singing and hanging out with her cat, Tima.

Liliane Kreuder

Liliane has a BSc from the University of Toronto where she studied Pharmacology and Cell & Molecular biology with a focus in stem cell and development biology. Growing up in a multinational family, she was exposed to many languages at an early age and spent her youth growing up in three different countries. Having a strong interest in education and working with kids, Liliane is involved in research aiming to evaluate dynamic assessment tools that identify at risk-learners in the French Immersion program. In the future, she’d like to pursue clinical research and continue with her interest in early childhood education and language development.

Lindsay Williams

Lindsay completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Linguistics at McGill University, and completed her Master’s degree at the Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain, and Language. Her Master’s research focused on the factors influencing interlingual competition and interference in bilinguals, and she continues to be interested in this topic, in addition to an interest in cognitive differences between bilinguals and monolinguals. In her free time, Lindsay loves hiking, pursuing various creative hobbies, and finding time to practice her own L2s, Spanish and German. 

Mia Vardouniotis

Mia has an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science from York University. She is currently completing a Master’s of Health Science in Speech Language Pathology at the University of Toronto. Mia is extremely interested in the study of language acquisition and development in children. She completed her undergraduate thesis on bilingualism and its effect on executive functioning. She is also interested in how bilingualism affects children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the prevalence of various signs and symptoms. In her spare time, Mia enjoys long walks and shopping! Mia is extremely excited to become a future Speech Language Pathologist.

Qadriy Naimi

Qadriy has a BSc from the University of Toronto where she studied Health & Disease,  Nutritional Sciences and Spanish. She has always had a passion for language and its interplay with neurological development in children. In the lab, Qadriy is assisted with the Online Literacy Study and the auditory attention systematic review.  Qadriy looks forward to pursuing a medical career and hopes to become a paediatrician. When she is not working on her studies, you can usually find Qadriy cooking Afghan dishes, writing poetry, and spending time with family and friends. 

Siobhan Galeazzi

Siobhan Galeazzi has a BSc in Psychology and Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto. Growing up in Quebec within a multilingual family sparked her interest in multilingualism and its impact on learning, development, and aging. She hopes to pursue graduate studies in clinical Speech-Language Pathology and eventually work as a clinical Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in treating underserved populations. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, drawing and painting.

Somayah Al-Ees

Somayah graduated from the University of Jordan, with a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology. She also holds an Honours bachelor’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She currently works as a Speech-Language Pathologist in private practice. Somayah has an interest in studying and providing normative data for typical cognitive and language development in multilinguals. Obtaining such data is much needed in the clinical and research community to develop speech and language assessment and intervention tools for multilinguals. She hopes to pursue a research-based degree in SLP.

Xiaohan Hou

Xiaohan is a graduate of the University of Toronto. She has a strong passion for public health, disease prevention and health promotion. During her free time, she loves dancing and outdoor sports!