Boys Town Research Postdoctoral Training Program

Boys Town’s postdoctoral training program develops and broadens the research capabilities of postdoctoral researchers in scientific disciplines related to human communication and its disorders. Boys Town Research has proudly hosted the T32 postdoctoral training program for 50 consecutive years, preparing over 100 postdoctoral trainees for research-intensive careers. Our trainees go on to establish their own labs at leading universities, earn R-level grant funding, and contribute to the advancement of science and clinical practice in a range of professional roles.

Opportunities: A T32 institutional postdoctoral training grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides stipends for four trainees. Additional positions may be available outside of the T32 grant.

Candidates: Candidates who have completed a Ph.D., D.Sc, M.D. or M.D.-Ph.D. are selected on the basis of their demonstrated research capability and their likelihood of benefiting from, and contributing to, areas of ongoing research at Boys Town National Research Hospital. We welcome applications from those who are recent graduates of speech and hearing, communication sciences or language-related doctoral programs, and related fields.

Term duration: NIH strongly encourages postdoctoral fellows to complete a minimum of two years of research training and limits stipend-supported training to a maximum of three years.

Boys Town’s Approach to Training

Designing and conducting research: The principal component of our training program is research in collaboration with one or more experienced investigators. Training always involves direct participation in all aspects of research, including planning, manuscript preparation, and grant preparation. All trainees become familiar with communication disorders research and with the primary clinical procedures used in their assessment and treatment.

Writing and grantsmanship: In addition to designing and conducting research, the Boys Town postdoctoral training program emphasizes training in writing and grantsmanship. Trainees develop their skills through participation in the Postdoctoral Writing Group, Mock Study Sections, and exposure to NIH grant application processes. Trainees receive complementary training on other aspects of professional development through a mix of internal seminar sessions, workshops, and speakers.

Pursuing individual training goals: Each postdoctoral trainee develops an individual development plan in collaboration with their primary mentor and with input from Boys Town’s Research Training Committee. Boys Town’s rich interdisciplinary environment offers postdoctoral trainees’ in-house opportunities for professional development and collaboration.

Research Environment

The multidisciplinary training program consists primarily of direct laboratory apprenticeship in behavioral and clinical translational research. The research environment includes:

• Behavioral, clinical and translational clinical scientists who serve as mentors
• A cohort of interdisciplinary research trainees
• Clinical staff with access to a large and varied pediatric and adult patient population
• Well-equipped laboratories and clinics
• Support from software and hardware developers in Boys Town’s Research Technology Services Core
• Support in human subject recruitment and standard clinical testing from Boys Town’s Research Participant Services Core
• State-of-the-art neuroimaging instruments and expertise
• A culture of collaboration and multi-disciplinary research

Program Faculty

Boys Town’s faculty of full-time scientists have expertise in a mix of basic and translational research in areas relevant to communication sciences. Our research centers specialize in hearing, language and learning, human neuroscience, and translational research.

• Angela AuBuchon, Ph.D. Working Memory and Language
• Adam Bosen, Ph.D., Auditory Perceptual Encoding
• Lisa Goffman, Ph.D., Language in Motion Laboratory
• Katherine Gordon, Ph.D., Language Learning and Memory
• Kristen Janky, Ph.D., Audiology and Vestibular Services
• Justin Kueser, Ph.D., Emerging Language Knowledge Laboratory
• Kaylah Lalonde, Ph.D., Audiovisual Speech Processing
• Hope Sparks Lancaster, Ph.D., Etiologies of Language and Literacy Laboratory
• Lori Leibold, Ph.D., Human Auditory Development
• Ryan McCreery, Ph.D., Hearing and Amplification
• Karla McGregor, Ph.D., Word Learning
• Gabrielle Merchant, Au.D., Ph.D., Translational Auditory Physiology and Perception
• Stephen Neely, D.Sc., Communication Engineering
• G. Christopher Stecker, Ph.D., Spatial Hearing and Auditory Neuroscience
• Krystal Werfel, Ph.D., Written Language Laboratory​​
• Kathryn Wiseman, Ph.D., Child Auditory Technology Laboratory

Questions?

Please contact Ryan McCreery and Lisa Goffman if you have any questions about postdoctoral training at Boys Town Research.