Student Research Spotlight - Mariah Morton
Mariah Morton won second place in the poster category—University-Wide Graduate Student Winners in Human Sciences, Social Sciences, Creative Arts, Nursing and Humanities—during the 2022 Auburn Research: Student Symposium.
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Degree and major: Doctorate in Kinesiology
College: Education
Department: School of Kinesiology (College of Education) and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (College of Liberal Arts)
Class year: Doctoral student
Faculty mentor: Mary Sandage
Determining Medical Speech-Language Pathology Deserts in Rural Alabama
What are you researching?
My research merges the disciplines of exercise science and voice science for a focus on voice and upper airway physiology. A secondary area I research is health care disparities for racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse people as well as rural-living individuals in need of speech-language pathology (SLP) specific voice and upper airway care.
How could the results benefit individuals, agencies or companies?
The results from my interdisciplinary work will hopefully lead to transformative research in speech, language and hearing sciences that deepens our collective understanding of the underlying mechanisms that support vocal function, so clinicians can provide more effective care to those with voice and upper airway disorders. Also, the result of my health care disparity work helps characterize access to medical SLP care in Alabama as well as the United States. This provides vital evidence that is needed for possible policy changes at health care facilities and the passage of legislation at the state level to expand insurance coverage and health care facility reach to mitigate barriers to care for the most vulnerable members of our society.
Tell us why you enjoy research.
I am naturally an inquisitive and intellectually curious individual. I enjoy the research process of having a question, searching the available literature, discovering a gap in knowledge and formulating a methodologically rigorous study to address the problem that will positively impact clinical practice.
What advice would you give to other students considering doing a research project?
You do not have to know everything or even have a clear question yet to consider conducting a research project. Research requires you to be a student, willing to learn. Have an idea of the general topic you are interested in investigating but let the literature help guide you in the right direction, because you may discover an area you had never considered, and, in my opinion, that’s the exciting part of research!
Tell us about any hobbies or activities you enjoy.
I enjoy reading fiction, when not reading research, as well as working out, traveling and knitting.
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