Nina Santus

Areas of Expertise

  • Stuttering
  • Dysphagia
  • Voice and Voice Disorders
  • Voice Modification Service Delivery
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Ethics and professional issues in the field of speech-language pathology

Interests

  • Fluency and fluency disorders
  • Evidenced-based treatment protocols for fluency
  • Implementation of effective fluency therapy within the setting of the public schools
  • Comfort and knowledge school-based SLPs possess when treating students who stutter
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Voice and Communication Services for Transgender and Gender Diverse Populations
  • Articulation disorders and the use of biofeedback
  • Dysphagia: use of NMES

Concentrations

Education

  •  Ph.D. in Communication Sciences, 2016
    University of Georgia
  •  M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology, 2005
    Indiana University of Pennsylvania
  •  B.S. in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Education, 2003
    Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Contact

Grants

Parkinson Voice Project, SPEAK OUT! and The LOUD Crowd.
2022
Parkinson Voice Project, SPEAK OUT!; The LOUD Crowd. This grant aims to make quality speech treatment accessible to people with Parkinson’s across the globe. Grant sites receive free SPEAK OUT!, LOUD Crowd, and Teletherapy training for SLPs, graduate students, as well as speech therapy supplies and funding for LOUD Crowd groups.
Parkinson Voice Project, SPEAK OUT!
2021
Parkinson Voice Project, SPEAK OUT!; The LOUD Crowd. This grant aims to make quality speech treatment accessible to people with Parkinson’s across the globe. Grant sites receive free SPEAK OUT!, LOUD Crowd, and Teletherapy training for SLPs, graduate students, as well as speech therapy supplies and funding for LOUD Crowd groups.
Gender Affirming Voice Services: Improving Access
2021
Gender Affirming voice training is a type of voice therapy that is used to modify aspects of a person’s voice to align more closely to one’s authentic self. Services are provided safely by skilled speech-language pathologists and are part of student practicum experiential learning. Health insurance often does not cover voice training and this can lead to lower retention and completion rates among transgender clients who seek services. The GSHFoundation Community Impact Grant was utilized to fund the provision of voice screenings, evaluations and sessions as well as two community workshops designed to increase awareness of the availability of Gender Affirming Voice Services from the University of Georgia (UGA) Speech and Hearing Clinic.
National Sertoma Community Grant
2015
Developed and awarded a grant through external proposal with University of Georgia Speech and Hearing Clinic’s clinical director for the 2015-2016 National Sertoma Community Grant. This grant supports Sertoma’s hearing health mission. This grant included a proposal to support our ongoing speech and hearing screenings in our local community by funding supplies needed such as testing forms, audiometers, pocket talkers, and hearing protection. To continue to perform these screenings in various settings in our local community as well as expand to new locations such as nursing homes would impact the community exponentially. Principal Investigator. Developed and distributed survey. Outcomes included feedback from current community partners as well as finding four more sites that were interested in a partnership.

Publications

Article

Are graduate students receiving adequate education and training in fluency disorders?
  • Santus, N., Tellis, G., and Kong, F.
  • Clinical Archives of Communication Disorders
Evaluation of a Wireless Tongue Tracking System on the Identification of Phoneme Landmarks.
  • Sebkhi, N., Santus, N., Bhavsar, A., Siahpoushan, S., and Inan, O.
  • Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
A Research-Based Clinical Tutorial in Adolescent Stuttering: Response to Coleman, Miller, and Weidner
  • Marcotte, A. and Santus, N.
  • Perspectives on Fluency and Fluency Disorders

Awards and Accolades

UGA Class Gift NSSLHA

Development & Alumni Relations, 2022