Alexandra Durfee, Ph.D.

Certifications and Licensure

• Licensed speech-language pathologist (MD)
• ASHA certification of clinical competency in speech-language pathology

Memberships/Affiliations

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences Right Hemisphere Damage Evidence-Based Writing Group
• International Right Hemisphere Collaborative
• Society for the Neurobiology of Language

Research

• Investigating typical and atypical (due to acquired brain injury) motoric, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive-linguistic contributions to affective (emotional) prosody recognition and production
• Investigating cognitive-linguistic recovery patterns following right hemisphere stroke
• Developing evidence-based aprosodia assessments and interventions post-acquired brain injury

Selected Publications (2021-current)

• Stockbridge, M.D., Venezia, J.H., Faria, A.V., Bunker, L.D., Durfee, A.Z., Kang, J., Neal, V., Vitti, E., Fridriksson, J., Hickok, G., & Hillis, A.E. (accepted). Acute temporal lesions are associated with phonological word verification errors. Brain Network Disorders.
• Keck, C., Lankford, A., Pfeiffer, D., Durfee, A.Z., & Guilfoyle, R. (2025). Speech-language pathology and occupational therapy students’ perceptions of an interprofessional stroke workshop: A mixed methods analysis. Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders, 9(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.61403/2689-6443.1349
• Borod, J.C., Stafford, R.J., Durfee, A.Z., Twaite, J.T., Scorpio, K.A., Pick, L.H., Meltzer, E.P., Murray, E.M., & Schmidt, M. (2025). Aprosodia. Medlink Neurology.
• Jewell, C.J., Diedrichs, V.A., Schwen Blackett, D., Durfee, A.Z., & Harnish, S.M. (2024). Comparative effectiveness of in-person and virtual picture naming treatment for post-stroke anomia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1-13.
• Durfee, A.Z. (2024). Post-stroke language impairments. Invited editorial on the neurobehavioral consequences of stroke by Neurotorium (Lundbek Foundation). https://neurotorium.org/post_stroke_language_impairments/
• Fan, H., Bunker, L., Durfee, A.Z., Lin, D.D.M., Yedavalli, V., Ge, Y., Zhou, X.J., Hillis, A.E., Lu, H. (2023). Simultaneous perfusion, diffusion, and relaxometry (T2* and T1) mapping with MR fingerprinting (MRF-PDR). Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 91(2), 558-569.
• Durfee, A. Z. & Hillis, A. E. (2023). Unilateral spatial neglect recovery post-stroke. Stroke, 54(1), 10-19. Invited review.
• Durfee, A. Z. & Hanish, S. M. (2022). Using Word-Picture Verification to Inform Language Impairment Locus in Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 3. doi:10.3389/fresc.2022.1012588 Invited paper.
• Minga, J., Stockbridge, M. D., Durfee, A. Z., & Johnson, M. (2022). Clinical guidelines for eliciting discourse using the RHDBank Protocol. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 31(5), 1949-1962.
• Berube, S., Goldberg, E., Sheppard, S. M., Durfee, A. Z., Ubellacker, D., Walker, A., Stein, C. M., & Hillis. A. E. (2022). An analysis of right hemisphere stroke discourse in the modern cookie theft picture. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 31(5S), 2301-2312.
• Diedrichs, V. A., Lundine, J. P., Schwen Blackett, D., Durfee, A. Z., Pan, X. J., & Harnish, S. M. (2022). A randomized crossover single-case series comparing blocked versus random treatment for anomia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. AHEAD-OF-PRINT, 1-28. PMID: 35287561
• Durfee, A. Z., Sheppard, S. M., Blake, M. T., & Hillis, A. E. (2021). Lesion loci of impaired affective prosody: A systematic review of evidence from stroke. Brain and Cognition, 152¸105759.
• Durfee, A. Z., Sheppard, S. M., Meier, E. L., Bunker, L., Cui, E., Crainiceanu, C., & Hillis, A. E. (2021). Explicit affective prosody recognition training in acute right hemisphere stroke. Brain Sciences, 11(5), 667 (invited paper). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050667
• Sheppard, S. M., Meier, E. L., Durfee, A. Z., Walker, A., Shea, J., & Hillis A. E. (2021). Characterizing subtypes and neural correlates of receptive aprosodia in acute right hemisphere stroke. Cortex, 141, 36-54.

Selected Presentations (2023-current)

• Ferré, P., Blake, M., Hewetson, R., Johnson, M., Minga, J., Murray, L., Stockbridge, M., & ANCDS RHDWG. (2025, March). Half a century of insight: A systematic review of language and pragmatic deficits in right hemisphere brain damage (1970-2024). Abstract accepted for poster presentation at the 15th World Congress on Brain Injury, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• Johnson, M., Blake, M.Y., Sheppard, S.M., Durfee, A.Z., Murray, L., Hewetson, R., Minga, J., Cornwell, P., & Ferre, P. (2024, December). Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: Advances in knowledge and practice. Invited master course presentation accepted at the Annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Seattle, WA.
• Keck, C., King, S., & Durfee, A.Z. (2024, December). Let’s get real: Using standardized patients to simulate interprofessional collaborations. Technical talk accepted for presentation at the Annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Seattle, WA.
• Sheppard, S.M., Cornwell, P., Durfee, A.Z., Johnson, M., Ferre, P., Murray, L., Blake, M.L., Minga, J., & Hewetson, R. (2024, November) Neural correlates of linguistic and pragmatic deficits in right hemisphere stroke: A systematic review. Abstract accepted to the annual meeting of the Academy for Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences. Virtual.
• Meier, E.L., Bunker, L.D., Kim, H., Durfee, A.Z., Tilton-Bolowsky, V., & Hillis, A.E. (2024, October). The effect of language task type and participant factors on functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy data quality from left and right hemisphere stroke survivors. Abstract accepted to the annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language.
• Sheppard, S.M., Cler, G., Patel, S., Ahn, J.S., Keator, L., Diaz-Carr, I., Hillis, A.E., & Durfee, A.Z.* (2024, October). Cueing improves expressive emotional aprosodia in acute right hemisphere stroke: Investigating neural and acoustic characteristics. Abstract accepted as a presentation to the annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language, Brisbane, Australia. *Denotes senior authorship
• Murray, L., Hewetson, R., Blake, M.L., Cornwell, P., Durfee, A.Z., Ferre, P., Johnson, M., Minga, J., & Sheppard, S.M. (2024, October). A historic trend in analysis of research pertaining to language and pragmatic after right hemisphere damage: Are we moving in the “right” direction? Presentation accepted to the Academy of Aphasia, Nara, Japan.
• Jewell, C. C., Diedrichs, V. A., Blackett, D. S., Durfee, A. Z., & Harnish, S. M. (2024, July). Efficacy of telerehabilitation for anomia in people with aphasia. Abstract accepted as platform presentation at the International Aphasia Rehabilitation Conference, Brisbane, Australia.
• Sheppard, S.M., Cornwell, P., Durfee, A.Z., Johnson, M., Ferre, P., Murray, L., Hewetson, R., Blake, M.T., & Minga, J. (2024, May). Lesion loci of impaired language and pragmatics in right hemisphere stroke. Abstract accepted as a poster presentation at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Waikoloa Beach, HI.
• Murray, L., Hewetson, R., Blake, M.T., Cornwell, P., Durfee, A.Z., Johnson, M., Minga, J., Ferre, P., & Sheppard, S.M. (2024, May). Historic Trends Within a Systematic Review of Language and Pragmatics After Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Abstract accepted as a roundtable presentation at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Waikoloa Beach, HI.
• Blake, M.T., Cornwell, P., Minga, J., Sheppard, S.M., Johnson, M., & Durfee, A.Z. (2024, February). Apragmatism: Communication disorders associated with right hemisphere brain damage. Abstract accepted to the annual Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association meeting, Fort Worth, TX.
• Tilton-Bolowsky, V., Durfee, A. Z., Bunker, L. D., & Hillis, A. E. (2024, February). Emotional prosody and facial expressions differentially augment comprehension of discourse for left and right hemisphere stroke survivors. Abstract accepted to the Annual International Stroke Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
• Johnson, M., Blake, M., Cornwell, P., Durfee, A.Z., Ferre, P., Hewetson, R., Minga, J., Murray, L., Sheppard, S.M., & Stockbridge, M.D. (January, 2024). Language and pragmatic deficits in right hemisphere brain damage: A systematic review. Abstract accepted to the International Cognitive-Communication Disorders Conference, Orange, CA.
• Keck, C., Guilfoyle, R., Pfeiffer, D., Lankford, A., Jozkowski, A., & Durfee, A. (2023, December). I experience[d] the value of collaboration”: IPE Stroke Training for Graduate OT and SLP Students. Invited oral presentation (30 min) presented virtually at the University of Santo Tomas’ Collaborate4Advocacy: International IPE Student Day in Manila, Philippines.
• Durfee, A.Z., McCauley, J., & Buzzard, C. (2023, November). Speech-language intervention for emotional aprosodia following anoxic brain injury. Technical research presentation at the Annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Boston, MA.
• Bunker, L. D., Meier, E. E., Kim, H., Durfee, A. Z., & Hillis, A. E. (2023, October). Changes in activation and functional connectivity in subacute aphasia following treatment: An fNIRS case series investigation. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Aphasia, Reading, UK.
• Durfee, A. Z. (2023, September). When your wife is now a hat: Post-stroke agnosias. Invited speaker at Neurotorium expert meeting on neurobehavioral consequences of stroke. Gothenburg, Sweden.
• *Jackson, M. S., Durfee, A. Z., Uchida, Y., Oishi, K., Sheppard, S. M., & Hillis, A. E. (2023, July). White matter damage after right hemisphere stroke and its effects on receptive prosody. Poster presented at the annual Human Brain Mapping Conference, Montreal, CA. *Denotes student mentee
• *Diaz-Carr, I., Durfee, A. Z., Ahn, J., Patel, S., Hillis, A. E., & Sheppard, S. M. (2023, May). Neural correlates of expressive prosody following acute right hemisphere stroke. Poster presented at the annual Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Atlantic City, NJ. *Denotes student mentee
• Durfee, A.Z., Minga, J., Sheppard, S. M., Johnson, M., Hewetson, R., Cornwell, P., & Blake, M. L. (2023, May). Apragmatism: A diagnostic label for right hemisphere communication deficits. Roundtable discussion conducted at the annual Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Atlantic City, NJ.
• Durfee, A.Z. & Hillis A.E. (2023, February). Unilateral spatial neglect recovery post-stroke. Platform presented at the International Stroke Conference, Dallas, TX. Invited talk.

Professional Service

• Ad hoc reviewer: Stroke, Journal of Communication Disorders, Brain, Annals of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine, ASHA Perspectives, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences