is associate professor of neuropsychology at Milan University (Italy). Since 1962 she works at the Department of Neurological Sciences of the University where she co-ordinates research and teaching on acquired disorders of cognitive functions, particularly language (aphasia).
From 1966 to 1985 she has organized and directed courses on the diagnosis and rehabilitation of aphasic disorders. She has given courses on neuropsychology in Brasil, Argentina, United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, France and Switzerland.
Her principal research interests are in the area of aphasia rehabilitation, but also on many other aspects of aphasia, including the relationship between aphasia type and locus of brain damage, the contribution of gender on type of aphasia, and the psycholinguistic analysis of aphasic deficits.
Besides aphasia, her main research interests concern disorders of gestures – apraxia -, acalculia, and their treatment.
She has published on the most important neuropsychological journals. In 2003 she published a monograph – Aphasia and its therapy – with Oxford University Press, also translated in Japanese, and in 2005 Conoscere e rieducare l’afasia with Il Pensiero Scientifico.

Dr Madeline Cruice BSpPath (Hons I), PhD, MRCSLT, MSPAA

Senior Lecturer & Programme Director for the BSc (Hons) in Speech and Language Therapy

City University, London, United Kingdom

PhD in Speech Pathology (University of Queensland, Australia)

Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)

Certified Speech and Language Therapist (Health Professions Council, UK)

Member of the Speech Pathology Association of Australia

Member of International Society for Quality of Life Research

Member of the Australian Centre on Quality of Life (ACQOL)

Affiliate Member of the Communication Disability in Ageing Research Centre (CDARC)

Madeline is a Senior Lecturer in aphasia and a member of the clinical staff in the Department of Language and Communication Science, City University, in London. She is involved in teaching aphasia, professional studies, and issues relating to inclusion and living with disability at undergraduate, postgraduate and masters levels. She contributes to the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at City University, addressing healthcare students’ clinical and communication skills in working with people with aphasia. She also supervises honours and masters level research students in aphasia in the areas of information accessibility, inpatient communication, attitudes and awareness, social activities, quality of life (also in cochlear implants in children) and goal setting.

Madeline’s doctoral research investigated the relationship between communication and quality of life in older people with and without aphasia, and also explored the use of family members as proxy respondents in quality of life evaluation. Her approach to quality of life is inclusive, incorporating psychological wellbeing, health-related quality of life, and overall concepts. She has a specific emphasis on viewing the person holistically, appreciating individuals in the context of their pre-stroke lives, and her secondary interest in gerontology supports this.

Her current research interests are: the linguistic and cognitive complexity of quality of life measures; the relevance and sensitivity of quality of life measures for people with aphasia and rehabilitation services; personal perspectives in quality of life; and social participation, access and inclusion issues for people with aphasia.

Leslie Gonzalez Rothi, PhD,

currently serves as Program Director of the VA RR&D Brain Rehabilitation Research Center and Investigator of the GRECC at the Gainesville VA Medical Center, Professor of Neurology in the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine, faculty of the UF Brain Institute, Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology in the UF College of Health Professions, and Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the UF College Liberal Arts and Sciences. In these appointments, Dr. Gonzalez Rothi serves as a clinician, researcher, administrator and educator. Dr. Gonzalez Rothi received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral neurology/neuropsychology. Dr. Gonzalez Rothi has held many professional leadership roles. She has served on the Executive Boards of the Academy of Aphasia, the International Neuropsychological Society, the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, and Division 2 (Neurologic Communication Disorders) of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association; serving as Presidents of all but the first. She is a fellow of Division 40 (Neuropsychology), American Psychological Association, as well as the American-Speech- Language-Hearing Association, a recipient of the “Outstanding Leader Award” given by the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, and is the recipient of a 2001 University of Florida Research Professorship in recognition of outstanding research and scholarly achievements. Dr. Gonzalez Rothi was honored as the 2007 Department of Veterans Affairs Paul B. Magnuson award in “recognition of outstanding rehabilitation research dedicated to seeking new knowledge to benefit the nation’s veterans”.

For the last 25 years, Dr. Gonzalez Rothi’s research has focused on understanding the brain organization of spoken language, reading, spelling, memory, attention/intention, gesture and tool use and more recently her focus has grown to include studies of the treatment of disorders of these systems using experiential and physiologic treatment combinations. To report her findings, Dr. Gonzalez Rothi has edited two books focused on various aspects of neuropsychology and has authored hundreds of chapters, articles and abstracts in scientific publications. She has served on the Editorial Boards of numerous scientific journals including the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society and the Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development. In the past, Dr. Gonzalez Rothi’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health of the U. S. Public Health Service and by the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service of the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Currently, in addition to serving as the Principal Investigator of the Center of Excellence grant funded by the VA RR&D Service to the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System in Gainesville.

Cynthia K. Thompson

Dr Thompson is a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Neurology at Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois, with faculty appointments in the School of Communication, Feinberg School of Medicine, the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, and the Neuroscience Institute. She holds academic degrees in Psychology and Speech and Language Pathology from the University of Oregon and the University of Kansas, respectively. A leading researcher in the field, she uses what is known about normal language processing and representation to guide studies of language breakdown and recovery in persons with stroke-induced aphasia. These patterns provide blueprints for clinical protocols and, in turn, address the utility of this translational approach for studying language disorders. She also studies the processing mechanisms that support recovery by tracking eye movements in sentence processing and production, and the neural correlates of recovery using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIDCD) for over 15 years and has led to publication of over 80 articles in referred journals and 28 book chapters.

Dr. Thompson is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center (at Northwestern), and recipient of the Walder Award for Research Excellence at Northwestern (2007). She is presently an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and is on the Editorial Board of Evidenced-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention. She is a member of the Academy of Aphasia (Board of Governor’s, 2003-2006), the Academy of Neurological Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), the International Neuropsychological Society (INS), the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), and the World Federation of Neurology.

Travis T. Threats, Ph.D.

is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Saint Louis University, where he teaches courses in neurogenic communication disorders. He has written and presented extensively concerning his three main scholarly interests: the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF); evidence based practice; and health care rehabilitation ethics. He worked on the development of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ICF as the primary contributor concerning the communication and swallowing chapters. He has served as ASHA’s representative liaison to the WHO since 1999. He has assisted ASHA committees on the incorporation of the ICF as the framework for the field in the Scope of Practice for Speech Language Pathology, Scope of Practice for Audiology, and the Preferred Practice Patterns for the Profession of Speech-Language Pathology. Dr. Threats is currently the Senior Consultant for the American Psychological Association (APA) in the joint WHO/APA project to develop and write the Procedural Guide and Manual for Standardized Application of the ICF: A Manual for Health Professionals. The purpose of this guide is to provide standardized methods for clinicians to classify clients’ behaviors using the ICF. He also currently serves on ASHA’s Advisory Committee for Evidence Based Practice and the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Science’s (ANCDS) Ethics Committee. Dr. Threats is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

PD Dr. Wolfram Ziegler

Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group (EKN)
Neuropsychological Department, City Hospital Bogenhausen. München, Germany

Academic Degrees:

1976		Diploma in Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University München
1981		Ph.D. in Mathematics, Technical University München
2003		Venia legendi in Neurophonetics, University München (LMU)

Affiliations:

1977 - 1984		Research Assistant, Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
1984 - 1989		Head of the Neurophonetics Research Group at the MPI for Psychiatry
since 1990		Research Assistant, Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, City Hospital Bogenhausen, Munich, Germany
since 1995		Head of the Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group (EKN)

Lecturing:

Lecturer in Neurophonetics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University München
Lecturer in Phonetics, Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Logopädie München

Memberships:

American Speech-Language-Hearing-Association
Asia Pacific Society for the Study of Speech, Language and Hearing
Deutsche Ges. f. Neurotraumatologie u. Klinische Neuropsychologie (DGNKN) e.V.
Editor Neurolinguistik
Editorial Board Aphasiology
Editorial Board Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics
Editorial Board Zeitschrift f. Klinische Neuropsychologie
Förderverein MUTABOR e. V. (Vorsitzender)
Gesellschaft für Aphasieforschung und –behandlung (GAB) e.V. (Schriftführer)
Hendrix Foundation for Childhood Apraxia of Speech
International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (Secretary 1994 - 2000)
International Neuropsychological Symposium

Research:

Topics: Dysarthria, Apraxia of Speech, Aphasia; Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
Publications in refereed journals, handbooks;
Textbooks on dysarthria, neuropsychol. diagnostics, neuropsychol. rehabilitation

Dr Ilias Papathanasiou

Born in Greece, Dr. Papathanasiou trained in Speech-Language Pathology at the University College London, University of London UK and holds a Masters degree in Health Sciences from St George’s Medical School, University of London. He then completed his PhD at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, University of London, were he studied the mechanisms of recovery of writing in aphasia. His clinical and research interests include the study of the cognitive processes and neural substrates that support spoken and written language, as well as the nature and treatment of acquired impairments of language. Dr. Papathanasiou has contributed numerous scientific papers to refereed journals, written several book chapters, organized a number of international meetings. He is the editor of the book Acquired Neurogenic Communication Disorders: A Clinical Perspective and co-editor of the book The Sciences of Aphasia: From Therapy to Theory. In Patras, Dr. Papathanasiou is the chair of the organizing committee of the 28th IALP Congress which will take place in Athens in August 2010. Currently he is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Technological Educational Institute of Patras, Greece where he is actively involved in teaching, clinical research and service delivery.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

13TH INTERNATIONAL

APHASIA REHABILITATION

CONFERENCE

Keynote Lecturers