Candidate for Vice President for Science and Research: Nidhi Mahendra, CCC-SLP

Dr. Nidhi Mahendra is a speech-language pathologist and researcher focused on designing and documenting the outcomes of impairment-based and life-participation interventions for persons with dementia and aphasia. She also researches equity issues in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) and learner-centered pedagogies in speech-language pathology. She studied at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (India), All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (India), and The University of Arizona.

Dr. Mahendra has completed fellowships in ethnogeriatrics (Stanford University) and leadership in aging (University of California San Francisco). A faculty member since 2005, she is currently a professor in the Communicative Disorders and Sciences department at San José State University (SJSU). At SJSU, she directs the Spartan Aphasia Research Clinic and is co-founder and researcher of the Healthy Development Community Clinic. Her work has been supported by the Alzheimer’s Association, National Institute on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), California Department of Healthcare Services, and several foundations.

As a faculty member, Dr. Mahendra oversees clinical research at two clinics, served as Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) for Enhancing Undergraduate Research, and co-founded an undergraduate honors program (HonorsX) based on design thinking and problem-based research. As department chair, she secured resources for programmatic innovation and research support, and she co-authored a notable revision to SJSU’s Retention, Tenure, & Promotion policies to recognize faculty scholarship in community-engaged research.

Passionate about inclusive science, Dr. Mahendra has served on many ASHA Committees, recently on the Committee on Clinical Research, Implementation Science, and Evidence-Based Practice (CRISP) and on the Ad Hoc Committee on Bilingual Service Delivery. She has been Perspectives Editor and guest editor of special issues for journals, reviews regularly for CSD and dementia journals, serves on editorial boards of Frontiers in Dementia and Topics in Language Disorders, and has extensive experience reviewing grant proposals for the Alzheimer’s Association. An ASHA Fellow (2022), Dr. Mahendra has received ASHA’s Certificate of Recognition for Significant Contributions to Multicultural Affairs (2012) and the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (AJSLP) Editor’s Award (2005).