Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year 2009
Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services

Dr. Sandra Gillam, an Associate Professor of Communication Disorders, has included 39 different undergraduate students in her research projects during the past two years. Dr. Gillam’s research primarily concerns clinical processes (assessment and intervention) with children who have language impairments.  Dr. Gillam believes strongly in promoting evidence-based practices in speech-language pathology, and she has been an incredibly positive influence on the way undergraduate students in the department think about research. She routinely mentors undergraduate students in nearly every step of the research process, including designing research protocols; collecting, transcribing, scoring, coding, and entering data; analyzing qualitative data; and preparation of poster presentations for both state and national conferences.  

Dr. Gillam has a remarkable ability to get undergraduate students excited about the research enterprise.  She approaches all of her projects with her students in a very “hands-on” manner, working very closely with them and increasing both their confidence and competence.  There are always many more students who volunteer to assist Dr. Gillam than there are research openings.  Clearly, the many undergraduate students in Communication Disorders and Deaf Education who have volunteered as research assistants in Dr. Gillam’s lab have gained a better understanding and appreciation of research through her efforts.