Melanie L. Matthies

Melanie L. Matthies serves as Senior Associate Dean at Boston University's Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences within the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences. Her academic career spans research and administration focused on speech production mechanisms.

Her research examines hearing's role in adult speech motor control using diverse populations including cochlear implant recipients, hearing aid users, pre-lingually deafened individuals, elderly subjects, and normal-hearing adults. Key investigations include speech motor control variability, efficiency, communicative effectiveness, and Parkinson's disease effects on speech production/intelligibility. Her work integrates biomechanical constraints with economy of effort and perceptual strategies.

Research trends show consistent focus on auditory feedback mechanisms (2003-2008 publications), with increasing emphasis on cochlear implant adaptation and Parkinson's disease applications. Her publications demonstrate interdisciplinary collaboration across acoustics, neuroscience, and rehabilitation science.

• Award for best paper in JSLHR-Hearing section (2007)
• Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Alpha Lambda Delta honors

As Subcontract PI for NIH R01 grants (DC03007 and DC01925), she secured significant research funding under Joseph Perkell's leadership. Her editorial roles include Section Editor for Ear and Hearing (2002-2005) and Associate Editor for the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (2008-present). Professional affiliations span the Acoustical Society of America, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Hearing Loss Association.