Jordan Green Notches Highest Award Bestowed by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Sean Hennessey

Date

December 12, 2024

Topics

Area of Expertise

Aphasia

Cognition & Neuroscience

Rehabilitation

Earned “Honors of the Association” this past weekend at ASHA national convention

Jordan Green’s passion for helping people communicate might be traced to his childhood garage.

"I’ve always loved sound and signal processing —I was a musician," Green said with a smile. "I started playing electric guitar as a kid. It was the thing to do in my neighborhood; many of us played in garage bands. It was a lot of fun."

Green’s skill with the guitar didn’t make him a rock star in the musical sense, but he’s certainly a rockstar in his profession.

This past weekend, the MGH Institute’s Chief Scientific Advisor and Matina Souretis Horner Professor in Rehabilitation Science was in Seattle at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s annual convention where he was awarded the “Honors of the Association,” the highest award bestowed by the organization.

"I’m deeply honored to receive this award," Green said. "I am incredibly grateful for this recognition. You spend much of your life working hard, often without expecting acknowledgment from your peers, so I feel truly fortunate to be recognized in this way.

And Green means a lot to so many — the colleagues who nominated him, the students he mentioned, and the patients who have been the beneficiaries of his groundbreaking research in the speech language pathology field.

With nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications in national and international journals, including Child Development, Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, and the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 20 funded research grants, 25 training/fellowship grants, along with numerous invited and international presentations, it’s evident Jordan Green is a pivotal figure in his field.

“These bare numbers support the notion that Dr. Green stands out among our discipline’s most influential scientists,” wrote Christopher A. Moore, Ph.D., professor and dean emeritus at the Boston University College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences in nominating Green, whom he mentored. “He is among the most accomplished, innovative, and prolific mentees I have worked with.”

“Dr. Green is a world-renowned scientist,” wrote Robert E. Hillman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Dr. Green has been a pioneer in employing automatic speech recognition (ASR) and artificial intelligence (AI) as research tools in our field.”

And this from Thomas F. Campbell, Ph.D., emeritus professor and emeritus executive director of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas: “It would not be an exaggeration to say that Jordan Green is one of the most prolific and consequential researchers of his generation.”

"Helping people communicate is one of the most meaningful things you can do with your life," Green reflected. "I strive to keep my priorities in line by focusing on problems that I believe truly matter and make a difference in people's lives through human communication. I always tell my students, 'Just give it your all and accept the consequences.' And, well, these are some pretty great consequences. It’s incredible to be recognized in this way."

How It Began

Green believes that life’s path is often shaped by a series of happy accidents. For him, the first came when a psychology professor mentioned what a rewarding field speech-language pathology could be. As a psychology major at the time, Green was intrigued by how the field seamlessly combined his interests in anatomy, physiology, and acoustics.

“It checked so many boxes for me,” Green recalled. “That was my first real introduction to the field—a field that many people aren’t even aware of.”

Green landed a clinician position at Children's Hospital as a speech-language pathologist — cancer, childhood stroke, craniofacial anomalies, and traumatic brain injuries were just some of the issues he worked with every day.

“It was a fascinating job, and I was always humbled by the responsibility,” Green reflected. “I often found myself questioning, ‘Am I really doing the right thing for this individual?’ Over time, I began to wonder why we were applying certain treatments without much scientific evidence to support them. When I started examining the scientific foundation of our field, it became clear that, at the time, we lacked a strong evidence base for many of the treatments we used. There were years of accumulated clinical knowledge and well-defined protocols, but we didn’t really know: Should we use protocol A or protocol B? Is there any solid scientific basis behind them?”

Then came the second happy accident — his entrance into research. Green secured a grant opportunity at Children’s Hospital and soon found himself discovering answers in topics that intrigued him, and he was hooked.

“I remember thinking, ‘I would like to keep doing this,’” said Green with a smile. “I mean, I'm getting paid to pursue my own interests here. What a great job.’”

The rest is history.

After earning his PhD in 1999, Green became Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where his stayed for four years, a stint that was followed by his recruitment to be endowed chair at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, where he established himself as a leader in the field, one who was obtaining National Institute of Health funding, no easy task in the research world. Green stayed at Nebraska until 2013, the year the MGH Institute of Health Professions made a major investment into its own research portfolio by recruiting Green and speech and language researcher Tiffany Hogan, who was also at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, to head up research here.

"The IHP made a strategic decision to launch its formal research program by hiring two or three senior investigators dedicated almost entirely to research," Green recalled. "That initiative, which was led by Bob Hillman, definitely played a key role in bringing us to IHP. Dr. Hogan and I both had national visibility in the field, which made it a significant move—two senior researchers already supported by NIH funding.

In addition to his appointment at the Institute, Green holds faculty appoints at Harvard in the Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology program, and the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation program.

Exponential Research Growth at MGH Institute and Beyond

Since the duo’s arrival a dozen years ago, the MGH Institute’s research portfolio has grown to nearly $50 million, thanks to the research, lab resources, and human capital (students and collaborators), not to mention affiliations with Harvard, MIT, and the Mass General Brigham system.

In that time, Green has burnished his reputation as a pioneer in employing automatic speech recognition (ASR) and artificial intelligence (AI) as research tools while being a leader in the development and application of speech analytics for early detection, tracking progression, and monitoring treatment in neurodegenerative diseases. Among his accomplishments: developing 3D motion tracking technology methods to learn how children develop speech and chewing skills; improving talking and eating for facial transplant patients; helping develop an A.I. app with Google that works as a personalized speech recognition mechanism; and co-developing an app to help diagnose ALS, track its progression, and determine whether the medicine used to treat the disease is even effective.

"The progress has gone well beyond what I could have ever imagined," Green remarked. "The support and resources at IHP and in the Boston research community have enabled us to pursue ideas I never thought possible."

Few would argue, including Nara Gavini, who oversees the MGH Institute’s research portfolio.

"Dr. Jordan Green's groundbreaking research has established him as a towering figure in the field, redefining IHP’s research trajectory,” observed Gavini, the Associate Provost for Research. “ASHA’s highest honor celebrates his unparalleled contributions to science, his commitment to fostering collaborations, and his dedication to mentoring the next generation of scholars."

As director of the Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, Green and his team focus on speech physiology and speech production, developing improved assessments for people with speech disability, especially with artificial intelligence as assisted devices to help people communicate better.

"Artificial intelligence is demonstrating its ability to recognize even severely disordered speech patterns," said Green. "These systems have the potential to serve as personalized recognizer providing these individuals access to communication with humans and machines. This technology can be lifechanging for the millions of individuals across the globe with speech disabilities"

The Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab was an early mover on the idea that speech can be analyzed with a computer that can extract countless data points about a person's health and well-being.

"We aimed to record speech digitally and analyze its features to determine whether an individual had a specific disease or to assess the effectiveness of therapeutic drugs on speech and swallowing," Green explained. "Speech analytics for clinical purposes is an area focus, particularly in leveraging artificial intelligence as a tool for advancing speech research."

There have been no shortage of impressive research collaborations: MIT’s Lincoln Labs, Harvard University, the University of Toronto, and researchers within the Mass General Brigham system, particular with Mass General Hospital.

"We collaborated with the face transplant team at Brigham and Women's Hospital," Green explained. "We also work closely with several investigators in the neurology department—one focusing on ALS and another on Parkinson's. We've written grants together, and they're listed as collaborators, but their contributions go far beyond that. They provide invaluable insights into the clinical relevance of the technologies we're developing, offering feedback on how these innovations could impact patient care. They even trial our technologies directly in their clinics. These partnerships are crucial—they serve as the clinical validation piece for our work."

Then there’s the industry collaborations Green’s team has enjoyed, among them: Modality A.I., Nestle Corporation, Biogen, Everything ALS, Google, and Takeda.

"One reason the industry turns to us is our location here in Boston, right at the heart of this healthcare ecosystem," Green observed. "But it’s also about our track record—we deliver results."

"We’ve helped raised awareness about the critical role speech plays in human health—not just in normal development but also as a powerful biomarker for cognitive, neurological, and emotional functioning. This has captured the attention of computer scientists, neurologists, and the pharmaceutical industry. It’s opened the door for us to collaborate and engage in meaningful discussions, where we can illustrate why speech is such a fascinating and vital aspect of human function."

“One of the things I am proud of is our lab serves as the connective tissue between the clinical world, the engineering world, and also the medical world.”

Ten people stand in a brick hallway posing for the camera — Green (second row, right) with staff, colleagues, and students who had trained in the Speech and Feeding Disorders lab at the MGH Institute.

A man poses next to a machine — Green was a pioneer in adopting advanced technologies like electromagnetic articulography, and microbeam systems to track tongue motion during speech and swallowing. These tools have been critically important for understanding how humans produce the vast array of speech sounds and for advancing our knowledge of speech and swallowing mechanics.

Nine people pose in an office with the person in the middle holding a certificate — Jordan Green (l) with former students and their students. This faculty/mentee tree, which numbers over 30, is one of the accomplishments Green is most proud of.

Jordan Green, in Taiwan, where he was invited in 2010 to give a lecture at the department of dentistry at the National Yang-Ming University.

A man stands at a podium on the left while people stand and clap — Jordan Green surrounded by colleagues after being named the Matina Souretis Horner Professor in Rehabilitation Sciences at IHP in 2018.

A man stands in front of a colorful wall with giraffes, a parrot and elephant painted on it. — In 2004, while at the University of Nebraska, Green utilized a 3D optical motion capture system to study the development of speech and chewing skills in infants and young children. This cutting-edge system allowed for the precise recording of 3D facial movements, providing valuable insights into the early stages of oral motor development. This system was also used at MGH IHP in collaborative research with the Nestle to identify the optimal food textures for infants and young children learning to chew.

The Faculty and Research Tree

Over the course of Green’s quarter century researching career, there’s plenty to be proud of; the breakthroughs, the difference in patient lives, the collaborations, the awards, the NIH funding, the endowed positions, the ASHA Honors of the Association, the list goes on. At the top for Green?

“There’s an easy answer to that,” Green replied without hesitation. “It’s the students I’ve had the privilege to work with and train—their achievements and how far they’ve come. That, for me, is the most meaningful part of the job—collaborating with these talented young people. Being a part of their journey and watching them grow into accomplished, mature scientists is absolutely incredible.”

To date, Green has mentored 30 different PhD and postdoctoral trainees, and dozens of early-stage investigators, many of whom wrote notes of support in Green’s ASHA nomination packet.

“Jordan’s work has greatly influenced my perspective on speech motor development, as well as the research methods I use,” said Maria I. Grigos, PhD, CCC-SLP, ASHA fellow and professor and department chair of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University. “I am so grateful for how he shared his knowledge and time with me early in my career — it truly left an indelible mark on my journey as a scholar.”

Said Hannah Rowe, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, postdoctoral research fellow at Boston University: “Jordan has had a transformative impact on me as a researcher, human, and future mentor. I aspire to be a mentor who challenges students to think critically and broadly; helps them build confidence in the face of setbacks; and instills a deep passion for the work we do, like Jordan has for me.”

The mentee tree that is growing by the roots Green has nourished has him beaming with pride.

"Many of them are now at prestigious institutions like the University of Iowa, Harvard, Northeastern, Vanderbilt, and Boston University," Green shared. "They’re earning tenure, securing grants, and making remarkable contributions. It’s the kind of success that keeps on giving."

The Next Chapter

Green plans to continue advancing his research program at the MGH Institute on speech disabilities while also dedicating time to mentoring other faculty—particularly those at the IHP—and assisting them in developing and strengthening their research programs.

"I see myself continuing in that role, mentoring our exceptionally talented faculty to help drive the growth of research at IHP," Green said. "Any effort I can make to provide support is time well spent."

As Green looks back on the time he has spent, introspection, thankfulness, and reflection are abundant.

“By far, the most rewarding aspect of my career has been the opportunity to collaborate with the remarkable students who have trained in the Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab. Their kindness, talent, and commitment have inspired and challenged me on every level.

"I am deeply grateful for the support that has made my research possible—from funding sources like the NIH, generous donors, and the universities where I’ve had the privilege to work. My heartfelt thanks go to the colleagues, mentors, students, lab staff, research participants, and family who have been with me on this journey. I want to especially recognize Brian Richburg, whose dedication and expertise as the SFDL lab manager since its founding at IHP in 2013 have been instrumental to our success. Above all, I have been profoundly uplifted by the unwavering support of my wife, Kimber; my parents, Nancy and Stewart; and my children, Max and Reese. This recognition is as much theirs as it is mine."

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