Rate My Professor Courtney Byrd

Courtney T. Byrd is a Full Professor, Associate Chair, and Graduate Advisor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She holds a B.S. in Communication Disorders from Louisiana State University Shreveport (1997), an M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from Texas Christian University (1999), a Ph.D. in Speech-Language Pathology from Vanderbilt University (2003), and completed an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship at The University of Texas at Austin (2004-2005). Byrd joined UT Austin in 2004 as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Lecturer, and Clinical Supervisor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She advanced to Assistant Professor (2006-2013), Associate Professor (2013-2019), and Full Professor (2019-present). Since 2017, she has served as Associate Chair, and since 2018 as SLP Graduate Advisor. Byrd is the Founding and Executive Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research, which includes the Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute (founded 2014), the Dealey Family Foundation Stuttering Clinic, and the Dr. Jennifer and Emanuel Bodner Developmental Stuttering Lab. She also serves as Vice President for Research for The Stuttering Foundation (2017-present) and has been an active member of the National Stuttering Association for over 25 years.

Byrd's research focuses on advancing understanding of stuttering etiology across culturally and linguistically diverse populations, fluency disorders, linguistic and motor planning in stuttering, and innovative treatment practices. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including "Use of Monolingual English Guidelines to Assess Stuttering in Bilingual Speakers: A Systematic Review" (2020), "Self-Disclosure Experiences of Adults Who Stutter" (2022), "Exploring the Effectiveness of an Intensive Treatment Program: A Follow-Up Study" (2018), and "CARE Model of Treatment for Stuttering: Theory, Assumptions, and Preliminary Findings" (2024). Her scholarship has earned over 2,000 citations. Byrd has received prestigious awards such as the University of Texas System Regents’ Award for Teaching Excellence (2011), Provost’s Teaching Fellowship (2015), Academy of Distinguished Teachers (2016), and National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame Lifetime Service Award (2014). Through her institutes, she provides clinical services, trains professionals worldwide, mentors doctoral students, and delivers public lectures, significantly impacting stuttering research, education, and clinical practice.