Welcoming Dr. Amy Peterson

By Hannah Young, Assistant Clinical Professor

In the Fall of 2022, the division was fortunate to welcome its proud alum, Dr. Amy Peterson, back to the University of Wyoming as an Assistant Professor in Communication Disorders. Dr. Peterson completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Wyoming before beginning her career as a speech language pathologist (SLP) in Cheyenne, WY. While practicing as an educational speech language pathologist, Dr. Peterson became involved in a research study examining language intervention for school-age students. When asked about her professional journey, she stated, “This led me to really want to pursue researching this area further because I knew there was a gap in the research evidence for language intervention for older students.” As a result, after several years of serving families and clients in the early intervention and elementary school settings, Dr. Peterson transitioned to Utah State University to pursue her Ph.D. While at USU, Dr. Peterson specialized in implementation science, which is the study of how to get research-based innovations into the hands of clinicians in meaningful ways and how those innovations can help the clients, students, and general population of people who need them.

As a Ph.D. student, Dr. Peterson had eight years of lived SLP school where she will answer questions she still has through specific classes that get into the “nitty gritty” of the field. She hopes to work in a hospital setting after grad school and might eventually open her own practice. When asked what this GAship meant to her, she said “A LOT. It means I can continue my education financially stress-free while managing the loans I already have. It made my parents really happy too!” experience that drove her desire to research innovations that could be used in practice. As a recent Ph.D. graduate and new faculty member at the University of Wyoming, she plans to continue to serve the SLP community by furthering her research focused on implementation science. Currently, Dr. Peterson’s research focuses on intervention for adolescents with language disorders. She shared, “Ideally these interventions will be immediately applicable to SLPs working with adolescents in the schools.” She is also working with other faculty members in the department on implementation science projects that relate to their specific areas of interest.

Within her first year as an assistant professor, Dr. Peterson has positively impacted several undergraduate and graduate students in the program. Currently, she has a master’s thesis student who is conducting an intervention study as part of her program. She also has several students in her lab helping with analysis of qualitative projects. When asked about student research, she enthusiastically stated, “I am always eager to build excitement and interest in research.” Shiloh Sather, a first-year graduate student shared, “Dr. Peterson is an inspiring mentor, and genuinely wants me to succeed. Walking out of her office after our first discussion of a possible thesis, I had gone from being unsure of exploring research to being completely excited and motivated to begin.”

The division looks forward to the impact that Dr. Peterson will continue to have on her fellow faculty, UW students, and the field of speech language pathology. Within the last year, she was chosen to be a protégé in the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Pathways program. She is also a UW Academic Writing fellow. When asked about her return to the University of Wyoming, Dr. Peterson said, “I love being back in Wyoming! It’s so nice to have connections with SLPs and other professionals state-wide that can be a part of my research program and help me learn more about implementation science in a ‘real world’ setting.”