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Victoria Reynolds didn’t set out to become a speech-language pathologist. She earned a law degree in Japan, chasing a field that prized logic and order, but what she found was disconnection. “I wanted something that was more focused on people as people and not people as legal files,” she says.

Now, as an assistant professor in the School of Speech-Language Pathology in the Ellmer College of Health Sciences at ��㴫ý, Reynolds is doing just that: focusing on people. Not just the patients most often studied or the professionals who’ve had a seat at the table for decades but overlooked voices. Literally.

Through a Summer Research Fellowship Program Award from ��㴫ý’s Division of Research & Economic Development (DivRED), Reynolds is studying the vocal strain placed on coaches, yoga instructors, and group fitness leaders - professionals who rely on their voices to guide, inspire, and energize.

“They’re using their voices to motivate people and to entertain people and to connect with people and to capture their attention,” she says. And most of them are doing it without any vocal training at all.

Unlike actors or singers, who receive coaching on vocal technique, these instructors are often left to push through hoarseness or strain without knowing what’s causing it, or how to prevent it. Reynolds’ research uses computer-assisted voice analysis and real-time listening to determine how voices change before and after classes. The goal is to answer a deceptively simple question with major implications: how much voice use is too much?

“That's a huge question!" she says. "We have guidelines for hearing, but not for voice use.”

Reynolds hopes her findings will spark better training and awareness across the fitness industry, including warm-ups, cooldowns, and what she calls “micro-treatments,” or brief interventions that could help instructors maintain vocal health in the long term. But for her, the research is also personal.

“What caught my attention is the inequities,” she says. “You use your voice and do what you have to do regardless of the consequences… My overall mission is accessibility and access to services.” That sense of justice that led her to study law guides her research.

That same mission drives how she teaches. “Book learning is really important, of course, but at the end of the day, particularly in the helping professions, we work with people.” She wants her students to enjoy what they’re learning, to be challenged, and to leave with the kind of mindset that makes them not only better clinicians, but better humans.

For students considering speech-language pathology, Reynolds highlights the balance between science and connection. It’s a field where you’re constantly thinking: about health conditions, treatment strategies, and the individuals in front of you. Building rapport, delivering evidence-based care, and adapting to the moment all require a sharp mind and a full heart. “It’s really rewarding to be able to do that for the large variety of health conditions we work with and the very, very different types of people we see.”

Reynolds is already looking ahead. This fall, she’s working on a new project with CHKD to support communication development in infants with unrepaired cleft palates.

Because for her, the work is always about one thing: listening for the voices we’ve ignored and helping them be heard.