Samantha Shune

Dr. Samantha Shune is an Associate Professor and Director of the Communication Disorders and Sciences Program at the University of Oregon's College of Education. Her research focuses on dysphagia's impact on aging populations, particularly exploring shared mealtime experiences to improve quality of life for older adults and their caregivers. She directs the Optimizing Eating and Swallowing for the Elderly Lab (https://eatinglab.uoregon.edu) and has received grants from NIH, ASHA, and Alzheimer's Research Funds. Her teaching emphasizes medical speech-language pathology, and she runs a community-based swallowing disorders support group.

Education:

• PhD (2014): The University of Iowa, Speech and Hearing Science
• MA (2007): The Ohio State University, Speech and Hearing Science
• BA (2005): The University of Michigan, Linguistics & Psychology

Research Interests: Dr. Shune's work bridges dysphagia management with biopsychosocial frameworks, addressing caregiver burden, mealtime dynamics, and cultural responsiveness. She investigates interventions to enhance nutritional intake and social interaction among older adults and nursing home residents.

Awards:

• 2022 Mather Institute Innovative Research on Aging Silver Award
• 2020 Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching (UO)
• 2017 Butler-Williams Scholars Program (NIA)

Advising & Grants: Supervised students include Nagshabandi, Zinnershine, Lin, and Foster. Her grants include NIH funding for dysphagia caregiver research and Oregon Tax Checkoff Alzheimer's Research support.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Optimizing Eating and Swallowing for the Elderly Lab, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams on mealtime interventions and caregiver support strategies.