CURRENT POSITION:
Associate Program Officer, Health and Medicine Division
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Washington, DC 20001
ebyers@nas.edu
EDUCATION
Indiana University
Doctoral Candidate in Speech Hearing Sciences2013 –present
Minors: Linguistics & Psychology
Florida International University
M.A. in Linguistics2012
Master’s Thesis: “Reduced vowel production in American English among Spanish-English bilinguals”
B.A. in English2011
Concentration in Analytic Writing and Writing for New Media
Appalachian State University
B.S. in Political Science2006
Area of Concentration: East European, Russian, and Central Asian Studies
Minor: Russian Language
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2017
Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education: Board on Children, Youth, and Families
Washington, D.C.
Research Associate; Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow
Performed in-depth research and analyses of issues related to BCYF studies, and authored issue briefs, workshop proposals, and worked with the board director on core development issues.
National Institute of Health –Internship in biomedical sciences 2015
NIH Intramural Campus, Bethesda, MD
Studied with Allen Braun, Ph D. in The Language Section of the NIH investigating discourse-level deficits in post-aphasic patients. Assisted with data analysis, manuscript preparation, and experimental design on two projects: A neuroimaging scan during narrative retelling and an epistemological review of the evidence for language recovery after stroke.
Speech Perception Laboratory Manager and Research Assistant, Indiana University 2013-2015
Oversee daily operations and participant recruitment for experiments. Conducted a variety of tests in the domain of phonological awareness, articulation, and vocabulary assessment.
Research Department Coordinator 2000-2004
Belk Library, Appalachian State University
Scanned documents and prepared web presentations for faculty. Conducted seminars on empirical research methods for undergraduate students.
AWARDS
Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Fellowship at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington DC 2017
IU Graduate School Fellowship to attend AAAS CASE workshop (for science advocacy) 2016
Provost’s Award for Women in Science Travel Grant 2016
National Institute of Health Training Grant Appointee 2014
Graduate Departmental Fellowship – IU Department of Speech Hearing Sciences 2013
Florida International University Dean’s Award for the Best Thesis in Linguistics 2013
LACUS conference: Presidents’ Prize for best scientific paper 2012
Henry Truby Award for Most Outstanding Student in the FIU Graduate Linguistics Program 2012
College of Arts and Sciences Award for Best Master’s Thesis – English Department 2012
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Indiana University
Instructor – S111 Phonetics2016
Developed and administered course on the acoustic and articulatory properties of human speech. Course focused on American speech with attention devoted to bilingual speech and World Englishes.
Instructor – S201/S513 Speech Anatomy and Physiology Fall 2015, Spring 2016
Developed syllabus and core aspects of course structure concerning human anatomy and the physiological processes of respiration, phonation, & articulation. I conducted all class lectures and administering grades for 40-60 students per semester and directed one graduate assistant.
Florida International University
Adjunct Professor – Writing and Rhetoric I (5 semesters) 2011-2013
Developed syllabus and core aspects of course structure, as well as conducting all class lectures and administering grades for twenty-seven students per semester.
ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
English as a Second Language 2012-2013
Guest Lecturer in Applied Phonetics 2013
Provided PRAAT software instruction to all students and conducted biweekly tutoring sessions.
Teaching Assistant in Writing and Rhetoric I: Hybrid Course 2011
Collaborated on syllabus and course development. Conferenced with students and administered all grades.
SCIENCE WRITING AND EDITING EXPERIENCE
Journal of Science Policy & Governance 2016-present
Associate Editor
Conversations in Science at Indiana University: ScIU 2016-present
Submissions Editor & Staff Writer
Indiana University Linguistics Club Working Papers 2016-present
Reviewer for phonetics, phonology, and bilingualism submissions
Editing Assistant to Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole 2013
Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals, Multilingual Matters, 2014.
ADVOCACY/POLICY EXPERIENCE
Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellowship
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Keck Center
DBASSE: Bureau of Children, Youth, & Families
South Florida Urban Ministries – Miami, FL
Community outreach program director 2006-20 10
Worked directly with government-funded and non-profit agencies administered by the Methodist church to provide free after school program and social services in South Miami. Assisted families in communicating with schools, connecting to legal representation, tax preparation, Thanksgiving meal delivery, and free English classes for families.
SCIENCE ADVOCACY INVOLVEMENT
2016 Indiana University Fellowship Recipient to attend the Catalyzing Advocacy in Science & Engineering Workshop sponsored by AAAS
Washington, D.C., April 17th-20th
2016 American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Conference: Case Workshop Participant and Science Communication seminar participant in Boston., February 15th-16th, 2017 th-15th
PUBLICATIONS
CHAPTERS
2016 Yavas, & Byers, E. (2014). “Production of Long Lag Stops in Spanish-English Early and Late Bilinguals.” Unusual Productions in Phonology: Universals and Language-specific Considerations, 242-258.
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
2017 Byers, E.& Yavas, M. (2017). Patterns of phonetic variation in reduced vowel production among highly-proficient Spanish-English bilinguals. PLOS ONE.
2017 Byers, E. (2017). Vowel reduction patterns of Miami English monolinguals and early sequential Spanish-English bilinguals. Topics in Linguistics, 18(1), 17-31.
2016 Byers, E. & Anderson, R. (In preparation). Perception of code-switched utterances in Miami’s Spanish- English bilinguals. Target journal: International Journal of Bilingualism.
2016 Byers, E. & Yavas, M. (2016). Durational variability of schwa in semantically-related word pairsamong early and late Spanish-English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism. DOI:1367.006914547936.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
2013 Byers, E. Key elements of reduced vowel production in L2 American English by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals. LACUS Forum 39.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2016 Mapping the functional pathways to speech intelligibility using neuroimaging techniques: A study of incremental speech perception
5th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan
Honolulu, Hawaii, November 30th
2016 The perception of code-switched utterances under suboptimal listening conditions
Florida Linguistics Yearly Meeting & Linguistics Matters Festival
Florida International University, Miami, FL, March 10th, 2016
2015 Perception of code-switched utterances by early sequential Spanish-English bilinguals
MidPhon 20 – Mid-Continental Phonetics & Phonology Conference
Indiana University, Bloomington IN, September 13th, 2015
2015 Individual differences in the perception of foreign-accented speech
International Conference on Bilingualism
University of Malta, Valleta, Malta, March 23-25th
2015 Production of long-lag stops (VOTs) in early and late Spanish-English bilinguals
International Conference on Bilingualism
University of Malta, Valleta, Malta, March 23rd-25th
2012 Reduced vowel production as a contributive factor to the perception of a foreign accent in L2 American English by Spanish-English bilinguals
Accents: VIth International Conference on Native and Nonnative Accents of English
University of Łódź, Poland
2012 Key elements of reduced vowel production in L2 American English by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals.
Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States Annual Conference at York University, Toronto, Canada. (Received Presidents’ Prize for this presentation)
2012 A comparative analysis of the durational patterns of schwa in L2 American English speakers.
5th Brno conference on Linguistic Studies in English, Masaryk University, Brno. Czech Republic.
2012 Reduced vowel production in L2 American English: A comparative study.
University of Illinois at Chicago Bilingualism Forum.
2012 Variation in the production of reduced vowel qualities in L2 American English between monolinguals and early Spanish-English bilinguals
2nd International Conference of Phonetics and Phonology, University of Shanghai, China
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Indiana University Health Level 1 MRI safety training completion 05/26/2016
PRAAT Speech Analyzing Software Highly Proficient
LANGUAGES
English – native language
Spanish- fluency
MEMBERSHIPS
American Association for the Advancement of Science – AAAS
National Association of Science Writers – NASW
Phi Beta Kappa
Acoustical Society of America
COSSA
ESEP
DC Science Writers Association