Vanessa Raynor

Vanessa Raynor is an assistant professor of communications at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and holds the position of Program Coordinator for the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program in the Department of Allied Health Professions. She also teaches communication sciences and disorders courses, develops program curriculum, serves as a member of both the curriculum and adjunct faculty committees, advises the National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association, supervises students in the Speech Clinic, and manages and organizes Speech Clinic patients. Vanessa owns a small private practice, Rehab Matters Speech and Language Services, which provides speech and language intervention services for children from birth to 3 years of age. She is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Vanessa graduated from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 1999, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. In 2001, Vanessa completed her graduate coursework at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. She received her doctorate of speech-language in 2008 from Nova Southeastern University in Miami, Florida. Her dissertation was titled “Training caregivers in feeding geriatric residents with developmental cognitive deficits and dysphagia.” Vanessa believes in volunteering in her community. She is a board of trustee member at the Ronald McDonald House of Durham in Durham, North Carolina. Vanessa’s research interests include the improvement of literacy skills through kinesthetic and tactile operations and the development of appropriate pragmatic language skills among African-American college students attending an HBCU.