Faculty and Staff
Get to know the individuals in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.
Full-Time Faculty & Graduate/Undergraduate Advisors
To make an appointment with any of the graduate/undergraduate advisors, please contact the the SLHS Office in Burk Hall 114 by calling (415) 338-1001 or sending an email to slhsinfo@sfsu.edu.

Laura Epstein, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Professor, Undergraduate/Graduate Advisor, School Internship Coordinator
Burk Hall 115
(415) 405-2170

Teresa Gray, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Associate Professor, Undergraduate/Graduate Advisor, Medical Internship Coordinator
(415) 338-1058
Burk Hall 102


Marcia Raggio, Ph.D., CCC-AU
Professor, Undergraduate/Graduate Advisor
(415) 338-7653
Burk Hall 104

Anusha Sundarrajan, Ph.D., CCC-SLP,
Assistant Professor, Undergraduate/Graduate Advisor
(415) 338-7652
Burk Hall 101

Betty Yu, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Department Chair, Professor, Undergraduate/Graduate Advisor, Thesis Coordinator
(415) 338-3429
Burk Hall 105
Administrative Coordinator

Mallorie Desimone, B.A.
Academic Office & Clinic Coordinator
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 114
Mallorie Desimone graduated from SF State in May 2007 with her bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies. While a student, she worked in the Credential Services Teacher Preparation Center. She is currently the SLHS department administrative office coordinator.
Lecturers & Clinical Instructors

Jim Cartwright, M.F.A, M.S., CCC-SLP
Lecturer
(415) 338-1001
Jim Cartwright is devoted to exploring the intersections between speech therapy, social justice, creativity, coaching, and counseling. He has a B.A. in Literature, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and an M.S. in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences( called “Communication Disorders” at the time) from this program back in 1996. Before becoming a lecturer at SF State, he worked for the San Francisco Public Schools for 10 years, then for a free community clinic for 16 years, where he was also the director and taught after-school creative writing classes for tweens with learning disabilities. He lives in San Francisco with his husband Jorge and is an author and a singer-songwriter. If you’d like to learn more about him, his personal website is https://www.jimcartwright.org/.

Wes Heidenreich, M.S., CCC-SLP
Lecturer
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 152
Wes attended San Francisco State University for both his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in Communicative Sciences. During his graduate program he focused on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), including completing a thesis on pragmatic factors that impact production of morphosyntactic forms when using AAC. Since 2014 he has been a clinician with San Francisco Unified School District working primarily with young adults and adolescents with complex communication needs. He can usually be found riding his bike around the city.

John Kim, M.S., CCC-SLP
Lecturer and Clinical Instructor
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 152
John Kim MS CCC-SLP, ATACP (he/him) is a doctoral student in the Joint Doctoral program at San Francisco State University (SFSU) & UC Berkeley in Special Education. John’s area of research is at the intersection of visual-graphic symbol acquisition, equity-centered AAC implementation, and translanguaging practice in the exchange semiotics of AAC users. John currently works as a clinical faculty at SFSU, speech-language pathologist and AAC specialist serving individuals, families, and communities.

Sarah Leslie, M.S., CCC-SLP
Clinical Instructor
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 146
Sarah earned both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree at California State University East Bay (Hayward). Her expertise is working with individuals with complex communication needs requiring augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT). She is a RESNA certified Assistive Technology Professional. She works primarily in the school setting providing AAC & AT assessments and intervention as well as mentor student interns and Clinical Fellows (CF). Outside of supervising the adult AAC Conversation Club clinic at SFSU, she works at ACTS/Ascend Rehab Services and serves on the Board of The Nika Project.

Emily Root, M.A., CCC-SLP
Lecturer
(415) 338-1001
Emily lives in New Jersey and has taught Fluency Disorders, at SFSU since 2017 as an online lecturer. Originally from California, she attended UC Santa Cruz for her undergraduate studies and went to graduate school at New York University. Emily has had a private practice in New Jersey for 20 years, specializing in working with children and young adults who stutter. Emily speaks annually at the National Stuttering Awareness conferences on topics ranging from stuttering desensitization to supporting parents of children who stutter. Emily also loves to spread the message of stuttering acceptance in as many communities as possible to decrease stuttering stigma around the country. Emily spends her free time listening to eighties music, working in local politics, and visiting California as often as possible!

Katherine Seto, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Clinical Instructor
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 146
Katherine Seto received her bachelor's degree in english from UC Berkeley in 1986 and master's degree in Speech Pathology from SF State in 1990. She has enjoyed working with the adult/geriatric neurogenic population for nearly 20 years. She is familliar with acute care, inpatient rehab, outpatient rehab, home health, and long term care settings. Ms. Seto is currently employed at Pacifica Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and has spent several years training Speech Pathology interns from SF Bay Area Universities. She is a big "foodie' and loves dogs. Ms. Seto lives in Foster City with her husband, three children, two dogs, and a tortoise.

Sara Spencer, M.S., CCC-SLP
Clinical Instructor
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 146
Sara Spencer has worked as a speech pathologist in hospitals, schools and private practice for over 30 years. She has been supervising at SF State for many of those years. She was the recipient of the 2010 CSHA Award for Outstanding Achievement. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons.

Alyssa Winn, M.S., CCC-SLP
Clinical Instructor
(415) 338-1001
Burk Hall 146
Alyssa Winn, M.S., CCC-SLP is the supervisor for the SFSU Neurodiversity Clinic and an alum of San Francisco State University (SFSU), where they specialized in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) through Project CLLASS. Alyssa now works as an ASL bilingual SLP for San Francisco Unified School District where they focus on early intervention for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children in efforts to prevent language deprivation by providing exposure to both spoken English and American Sign Language.
Outside of speech pathology duties, Alyssa is a co-leader of Queer Birders Bay Area, a birdwatching group that promotes inclusivity in nature and birding communities.