Tara McAllister

Tara McAllister is an Associate Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program in Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University’s Steinhardt School. She leads the Biofeedback Intervention Technology for Speech (BITS) Lab, focusing on speech learning mechanisms and biofeedback treatments for speech disorders. Her work emphasizes acoustic and ultrasound biofeedback efficacy in resolving residual speech sound disorders, particularly in children. McAllister directs development of the staRt iOS app, expanding access to biofeedback training. She holds degrees from Harvard, MIT, and Boston University, with clinical expertise in speech-language pathology.

Education:

• A.B./A.M., Linguistics, Harvard University (2003)
• M.S., Communication Disorders, Boston University (2007)
• Ph.D., Linguistics, MIT (2009)

Research Interests: Speech motor control, perception-production links, bilingual phonological development, and technology-driven interventions. Her NIH-funded studies investigate biofeedback applications for speech disorders and crowdsourcing methodologies for perceptual analysis.

Grants & Labs:

• NIH/NIDCD-funded BITS Lab research
• staRt app development since 2014

Teaching: Courses include Critical Evaluation of Research and Speech Science Instrumentation, emphasizing evidence-based practices in communication sciences.