Rene L. Utianski received her B.A. in psychology and speech and hearing science from George Washington University, her M.S. in communication sciences and disorders, and her Ph.D. in speech and hearing science from Arizona State University. Then, she completed a fellowship in electrophysiology at the Movement Disorder Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Neurology, and a residency and clinical post-doctoral fellowship in speech pathology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. She is now a Consultant in the Section of Speech Pathology, Department of Neurology, and an Associate Professor of Neurology and Speech Pathology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. Her research interests include neurogenic motor speech disorders (dysarthrias and apraxia of speech), degenerative language disorders (aphasia), and functional speech disturbances. The focus of her research is to define the distinguishing clinical and acoustical characteristics of these neurological disorders, establish their neurological and electrophysiological correlates, and refine their differential diagnoses.