Jeanette A. Ortiz

Jeanette Ortiz is the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Advising in the School of Communication and the academic advisor for undergraduate students in the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). She also teaches CSD 110: Introduction to Hearing and Speech Acoustics, a core requirement for the Human Communication Sciences (HCS) undergraduate major and minor.

As Assistant Dean, Jeanette supports the development, approval, and implementation of curricular changes, counsels faculty with regards to academic policies, and serves as a liaison to key partners across the university.

After completing her bachelor's degree with a major in Japanese language, Jeanette worked at Panasonic Corporation's headquarters in Japan as an editor of internal communications media. To pursue her interests in language, music, and the brain, she returned to the Chicago area, and earned both of her graduate degrees from Northwestern University. Her master's thesis in linguistics focused on the effects of stress and clear speech on consonant acoustics, and her doctoral dissertation in the area of audiology and hearing sciences investigated perceptual learning on basic auditory tasks. Outside of academics, Jeanette's interests include music, travel, and dance, and she is a former instructor and company member of Latin Street Music and Dancing Studio.

Education

PhD, Audiology and Hearing Sciences, Northwestern University

MA, Linguistics, Northwestern University

BS, Languages and Linguistics, Georgetown University

Teaching

CSD 110: Introduction to Hearing and Speech Acoustics
My overall goals are to cultivate students’ appreciation of the complexity of the peripheral systems that enable humans to communicate via speech, and to build learning communities.

Research & Publications

Ortiz, J.A. and Wright, B.A. (2010) “Differential rates of consolidation of conceptual and stimulus learning following training on an auditory skill,” Experimental Brain Research, 201, 441-451.

Banai, K, Ortiz, J.A., Oppenheimer, J.D., and Wright, B.A. (2010) “Learning two things at once: Constraints on the acquisition phase of perceptual learning,” Neuroscience, 165, 436-444.

Ortiz, J.A. and Wright, B.A. (2009) “Contributions of multiple types of learning to early, rapid perceptual improvements,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35, 188-194.

Abstracts & Presentations

Banai, K., Ortiz, J., Oppenheimer, J., and Wright, B.A. (2007) “Daily training requirements for bypassing the stimulus specificity of perceptual learning,” Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting Program 2007, Abstract A106, 48. (A).

Wright, B.A., Sabin, A.T., Ortiz, J.A., Stewart, C.C., and Fitzgerald, M.B. (2006) “Different influences of varying the number of daily training trials on learning on frequency- and temporal-interval discrimination” Association for Research in Otolaryngology Abstracts, 29, Abstract #179, 60. (A)

Wright, B.A., Fitzgerald, M.B., Stewart, C.C., and Ortiz, J.A. (2005) “Training requirements necessary for frequency-discrimination learning over multiple sessions,” Association for Research in Otolaryngology Abstracts, Abstract #733, 28, 258 (A).

Ortiz, J.A. and Wright, B.A. (2005) “Effects of different amounts of brief training and rest on the generalization of learning from interaural-level-difference to interaural-time-difference discrimination,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117, 2561 (A).

Ortiz, J.A., Bradlow, A.R., and Pierrehumbert, J.B. (2004) “Voiceless stop duration under narrow focus and in clear speech,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 115, 2541 (A).

Ortiz, J.A. and Wright, B.A. (2003) “Different effects of overnight consolidation on three types of learning in interaural-time-difference discrimination,” Association for Research in Otolaryngology Abstracts, Abstract #304, 26, 76 (A).

Wright, B.A. and Ortiz, J.A. (2002) “Learning interference associated with training temporal-interval discrimination with two stimuli,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 111, 2338 (A).

Ortiz, J.A., Wright, B.A., Fitzgerald, M.B., and Pillai, J. (2001) “Rapid improvements on interaural-time- difference discrimination: Evidence for three types of learning,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109, 2289 (A).

Wright, B.A. and Ortiz, J.A. (2000) “Unexpected benefits of training frequency discrimination on the learning and generalization of interval discrimination,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 2821 (A).