With new students, new faculty, and
a new Health and Behavioral Studies building, the Department of Communication
Sciences and Disorders is excited to kick off a new school year! The
undergraduate peer advisors would like to introduce one of our newest faculty
members, Dr. Geralyn Timler. At the undergraduate level, she is currently
teaching CSD 300 Children’s Language and will be teaching a section of CSD 314
Phonological and Language Disorders in the spring. She is looking forward to
the unique opportunity of collaborating with another child language researcher
and professor, Dr. Pavelko, for CSD 314. She is also teaching Speech Sound
Disorders for the Master’s program and is serving as the new director of JMU’s
residential Speech-Language Pathology Master’s program. Her research is focused
on social communication disorders and she is looking at how a self-report
measure of children’s conversation skills could be used for documenting the
effects of social communication interventions.
Dr. Timler attended University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire for her undergraduate degree, University of Wisconsin-Madison
for her Master’s, and then the University of Washington for her Ph.D. She has
since taught at several universities, including Miami of Ohio where she last
worked, and has had an extensive career working with children with language
disorders. She experienced working in a myriad of settings including an
in-patient children’s hospital, an outpatient clinic, a psychiatric hospital, a
juvenile hall, and in early intervention with medically fragile kids. Dr.
Timler said that she has loved working in different settings over the years,
but that her favorite clinical setting was where she was able to be a part of
an interdisciplinary team.
At the prospect of coming JMU, Dr.
Timler was instantly impressed with JMU’s faculty and shared the excitement of
the department moving to a new building. She also appreciated that our clinic
had an association with the local public schools. Between JMU’s speech program
and the surrounding area suiting her love for hiking, the move to JMU was a perfect
fit. She is looking forward to working with such a strong student body and a
faculty with diverse interests. We’re so glad to have you, Dr. Timler!