Heather Flowers
Chercheur senior

Biography

Heather Flowers has worked as a speech-language pathologist for over 15 years in a variety of settings across the continuum of care, from emergency services to ambulatory and long-term care. Before becoming a speech-language pathologist, she earned a Master's degree in Education and taught English as a foreign language at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Education and School of Graduate Studies. It was here that she developed her approach to teaching, and began to take a keen interest in the development of educational programs.

She then pursued a Master's degree in Health Sciences (Speech-Language Pathology) at the University of Toronto. Shortly afterwards, she began her doctoral studies in clinical epidemiology, focusing on swallowing and communication disorders. At the same time, Heather trained at the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences at Toronto's Sunnybrook campus. Heather has been an Assistant Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Ottawa since November, 2016. 

Research interests

• Exploring the neuroanatomical and behavioral concordance between swallowing and communication.
• Identifying the determinants of concomitant swallowing and communication disorders across the lifespan
• Establishing effective interventions to promote remediation of swallowing disorders.