Hannah Franke is a clinical research assistant in the SoAL Lab. In this position, she works with Dr. Parish-Morris and many collaborators on the CONNECT study, which investigates spontaneous natural conversation in autistic and non-autistic teenagers. She also manages students on the LENA study, which explores the relationship between infant vocalizations and subsequent autism diagnoses. Her primary research interests are the psychological and linguistic mechanisms of social conversation in a real-world context, and she is thrilled to explore these questions as a member of the SoAL Lab!

Hannah graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Linguistics. During her undergraduate education, she worked with Dr. Bob McMurray in coordinating a research study to investigate the impact of prediction on spoken word recognition. She also worked with Dr. Ethan Kutlu to explore the effect of personae on scalar adjectival implicature. Hannah intends to pursue a PhD in Psychology or Linguistics to continue collaborating with incredible researchers on questions of language use, social communication, and human connection.

Lizzy Fulop works at the Center for Autism Research (CAR) as a data analyst. In her role, she develops and manages study databases and facilitates data processing and visualization. As a part of the Data and Statistical Core at CAR, the role includes supporting individual study teams, such as Dr. Julia Parish-Morris’s SoAL lab, as well as data integration across the Center. For the SoAL lab, Lizzy’s role focuses on generating audio files for transcription for the team and outputting metrics on transcribed audio files.

Lizzy graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. During her undergraduate studies, she was part of the student volunteer program at CAR. After Temple, she gained hands-on experience in clinical research and received a Certificate in Data Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently working towards her Master of Science in Data Science part time at Eastern University. Having an autistic family member drives and inspires her passion for this research.

Meg works at the SoAL lab as a clinical research assistant. She assists a variety of studies under Dr. Julia Parish-Morris including the Digitizing Human Vocal Interaction study, the SAGA Study, and many of the collaboration studies the lab supports. Meg also trains student interns on transcription for various projects and grants within SoAL as well as maintains communication with the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Meg graduated summa cum laude from the George Washington University in May 2023, receiving a B.A. in Honors Psychological and Brain Sciences as well as a B.A. in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. As an undergrad, Meg worked with Dr. Michelle Stock in the Health Cognitions and Behavior Lab aiding research that utilized social psychological theories to understand risky health cognitions and behaviors with a focus on racial and gender discrimination. Meg intends to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology to further her interests in child development and behavioral healthcare.