Katherine S. Aboud, Ph.D.

Katherine Swett Aboud, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in Special Education at Vanderbilt University, as well as a recipient of the NIH Director's Early Independence Award (2021). Her research focuses on the neural characterization of reading processes and the treatment of reading disorders using multi-modal neuroimaging approaches and non-invasive brain stimulation.
 

The goal of Dr. Aboud's NEL Lab is to characterize and enhance adult learning through high-definition, multimodal brain imaging and neuromodulation, with a specific focus on reading and related disorders. To accomplish this, she relies on her expertise in multimodal neuroimaging, neurocognitive models of reading and related disorders, and non-invasive brain stimulation. This unique convergence of expertise has resulted in the following primary arms of her research program: 1) Individualized, high-definition (fused MRI-EEG) brain characterization of reading processes, 2) Individualized, high-definition brain characterization of reading disorders, and 3) Individualized, high-definition non-invasive brain stimulation to enhance learning from texts in populations with and without reading disorders.
 

Prior to her work at Vanderbilt, Dr. Aboud was an Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) fellow at the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders at the NIH. In 2016, she was selected as a Fellow in the inaugural National Center of Adaptive Neurotechnology training program. She has been a Learning Disability Hub Scholar in the Special Education Department at Peabody College since 2017. She completed her doctoral work in Peabody College of Education and the Vanderbilt Brain Institute at Vanderbilt University, where she was awarded the Elaine Sanders-Bush Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research for her work in reading disabilities. From 2020-2021, she co-led a research initiative on neuromodulation with Vanderbilt’s Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator; this initiative won first place in the US Army Medical Research and Development Command xTech BOLT prize competition. In 2021, Dr. Aboud was awarded the NIH's Outstanding Scholar of Neuroscience Award. Inspired by her husband, her son, and her dedicated team of researchers, she strives to continually produce inventive neuroscience research at the Neural Enhancement of Learning Lab.

Mentions & Awards:
2019: Elaine Sanders-Bush Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research
2021: US Army Research xTech BOLT prize winner
2021: NIH Outstanding Scholar of Neuroscience awardee
2021: NIH Director's Early Independence Award recipient
2022: VKC Notables, August 2022: Leading the Vanguard: Katherine Aboud