Melanie Fried-Oken, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Education:

• Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Study of Language Behavior, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
  
• M.A., Communicative Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
  
• B.A., Psychology and Linguistics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
  

Professional Background & Interests:

Dr. Fried-Oken is a leading international clinician and researcher in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and provides expertise about assistive technology for persons with acquired disabilities who cannot use speech or writing for expression. She was associate editor of the international journal, Augmentative and Alternative Communication; and editor of the book Speaking Up and Spelling It Out, a collection of essays written by adults with disabilities using speech technology. In the policy arena, Dr. Fried-Oken has worked in the past to add speech generating devices to the DME list for the Oregon Medicaid program, and is a member of the Medicare Implementation Team that changed the CME rulings so that speech generating devices are now provided to Medicare enrollees. She has a number of federal grants to research communication technology for persons with Alzheimer's disease, ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases, and the normally aging population. She staffs the Augmentative Communication Clinic through the Otolaryngology department at Oregon Health & Science University.  Dr. Fried-Oken loves to spend time with her family, relax at the Oregon Coast, and travel.