I am a native of York County, Pennsylvania, home of rolling hills, hearty PA Dutch cuisine, and Harley Davidson motorcycles. I attended college at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where I received my B.S. and M.S. in Psychology/Biopsychology. Instead of answering the call from friends with lucrative pharma jobs in the Philly area, I opted to become a poor graduate student in Bob Dooling’s Laboratory of Comparative Psychoacoustics at the University of Maryland.
There I studied perceptual hearing deficits in canaries with a hereditary hearing loss and had the opportunity to learn about all manner of creatures—bugs, birds, bats, reptiles.
I received my Ph.D. in Psychology/Integrative Neuroscience in 2006 and moved to Johns Hopkins Otolaryngology to redirect my skills to study the mammalian auditory system. I completed postdoctoral fellowships with Drs. Brad May and David Ryugo. I became an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at Hopkins in July 2013 and Associate Professor in 2019. In 2024, I became the Vice Director for Academic Affairs in Otolaryngology. I have secondary appointments in the departments of Neuroscience and Functional Anatomy & Evolution. I also serve as the co-director for a Research Training Program in Otolaryngology for residents and medical students, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and as a mentor in several research training programs for students from historically marginalized backgrounds.
In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, walking, reading, and volunteering for environmental efforts in my community. I love to travel especially to small towns, and sampling local delicacies wherever I am is a favorite activity. Interesting snacks often make their way to the lab from my excursions!
Photo credit: Sandra Cryder
