Sandra Laing Gillam

Sandi Gillam conducts research on evidence-based assessment and intervention practices to improve the lives of individuals diagnosed with or at risk for speech and language disorders. She has a long-standing track-record of undergraduate research mentorship at USU dating back to 2008. Dr. Gillam’s approach focuses on creating a “team-based” lab culture in which undergraduates are encouraged to think of themselves as “researchers”. Her research teams usually consist of 2-5 undergraduate students and 1-3 graduate students. Many semesters, her lab includes multiple teams working on related projects ranging from feasibility to randomized controlled trial studies of educational assessments and interventions. She has mentored 73 undergraduate researchers using this “team-based” approach. Undergraduate mentees have been authors on 63 international, national, regional, and state presentations and 8 articles, book chapters and books. Nearly all of her undergraduate mentees have gone on to graduate school. In addition, one of her undergraduate mentees has obtained a PhD and is working at a Research 1 institution. Two more (that she knows of) are currently doctoral students. This year, Dr. Gillam’s undergraduates are presenting projects at UCUR and if accepted, NCUR that focus on applying automatic speech recognition and machine learning techniques to language sample analysis.