Meet IPE Faculty Advisors, Staff and Students

Dr. Sundarrajan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology in India. She earned her Ph.D. in Speech Language Pathology and a minor in Gerontology at Purdue University in 2016. Her research interests center around understanding the physiology of aging voice using aerodynamic and acoustic measures. She is specifically interested in understanding how the healthy young and old larynx responds to the effects of unhealthy, and the excessive use of the laryngeal mechanism. She has extensive clinical experience working with children with developmental disabilities in schools and private practices both in the U.S. and in India. Since she joined the SLHS faculty in Spring Semester, 2019, Dr. Sundarrajan has established research and clinical services in the area of gender-affirming voice. The goal of the clinical program in gender-affirming voice is to help participants identify and speak with a voice that matches their gender expression. Through her commitment to assisting students develop collaboration across disciplines, Dr. Sundarrajan has assisted in integrating IPE into SLHS as an advisor for events and co-author for student conference presentations.

Nancy B. Robinson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is Professor Emerita at San Francisco State University in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences in the Graduate College of Education. With her colleagues, Drs. Gloria Soto and Patti Solomon-Rice, Dr. Robinson developed graduate specialization in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) that includes a graduate certificate for SLPs and related professionals in AAC. Over the course of her career, Dr. Robinson served in a number of faculty and administrative roles in the GCOE. Throughout each of these experiences, Dr. Robinson learned and practiced collaboration and teamwork with her colleagues to build interdisciplinary programs. Most recently, Dr. Robinson assisted in launching Interprofessional Education (IPE) and Interprofessional Practice (IPP) in the SLHS Department and GCOE. Dr. Robinson believes that IPE and IPP, "bring my years of learning about the importance of collaboration into focus with defined competencies for professionals in health and education fields to create coordinated services with the people we serve."

During her time as an undergraduate student in the SLHS program, Nicole has taken on several roles and projects, such as mentor for Flo Kimmerling's Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech Mechanism class, rehabilitation assistant at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco State University (SF State) National Student Speech-Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) California Speech-Language Hearing Association (CSHA) Representative Fall 2019/Spring 2020, and CSHA District 1 Advisory and Honors Committee Student Member. Nicole's interest in IPE began when she became a planning committee member for SF State's first-ever Interprofessional Education (IPE) event in May of 2019. Nicole has worked closely with fellow SF State SLHS student, Lara Crotwell, and Dr. Anusha Sandarrajan to draft and submit a proposal on IPE to present at the 2021 CSHA and ASHA conferences. She is currently working closely with Dr. Anusha Sundarrajan and Dr. Nancy Robinson to develop online resources for IPE. Nicole is a first year graduate student at SF State in the Fall of 2020 working towards a Master of Science Degree in Communicative Disorders, Speech-Language Pathology.

When Lara Crotwell began to work with individuals on the Autism Spectrum she learned about the challenges this community faced and the other numerous populations who faced communication differences and disabilities in the community. Working with these populations led her to become a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences student at San Francisco State University (SF State). Lara Crotwell has been invested in the SLHS department through her role as an officer within The National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association (NSSLHA) Chapter and the Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) Chapter. Lara Crotwell was an invested part of the undergraduate team that implemented not only the first, but the second IPE event at SFSU. Lara Crotwell has worked as a research assistant with Anusha Sundarrajan and Nancy Robinson developing a manual on IPE for inclusive schools. As a team Lara C, Nicole L., Anusha S., and Nancy R. further implemented IPE within our SLHS department at SF State by creating a website dedicated to IPE implementation. Lara Crotwell, Nicole Lara, and Anusha Sundarrajan were accepted to present an educational research poster on IPE at CSHA 2021 and have also submitted their work on IPE to ASHA 2020. Lara Crotwell is a 1st year graduate student at SF State in the Fall of 2020 working towards a Masters of Science Degree in Speech-Language Pathology.