Robert E. Hillman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Co-Director/Research Director
Associate Professor-Harvard Medical School
Phone: 617-726-0220
hillman.robert@mgh.harvard.edu

View full CV

Robert E. Hillman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP: Dr. Robert E. Hillman is currently the Co-Director and Research Director of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School (Surgery) and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology), Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Interim Academic Dean at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute of Health Professions, and a Research Affiliate in the Speech Communication Group at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

He received his Bachelor’s (1974) and Master’s (1975) degrees in speech-language pathology from the Pennsylvania State University where he was also voted the 1974 Ernest B. McCoy Award as the outstanding senior scholar-athlete. After becoming clinically certified in speech-language pathology, Dr. Hillman went on to receive a doctorate in speech science from Purdue University in 1980. Since receiving his doctorate, Dr. Hillman has been awarded over 20 grants from governmental and private sources to support his research. He has had research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1984. His research and over 80 publications have focused on mechanisms for normal and disordered voice production, evaluation and development of methods for alaryngeal (laryngectomy) speech rehabilitation, development of objective physiologic and acoustic measures of voice and speech production, and evaluation of methods used to treat voice disorders. In the past, Dr. Hillman has been actively involved in the design and review of research programs at NIH, having served on the “Expert Panel on Voice and Voice Disorders to Update the National Strategic Research Plan" for the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and served as a project site visitor for the National Cancer Institute. He continues to serve as a core member of the Motor Function and Speech Rehabilitation Study Section at the NIH Center for Scientific Review.  He has also served as an editorial consultant and on the editorial boards of several professional journals, and has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings.

Dr. Hillman is an elected Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and is one of only four speech-language pathologists in the country to be elected as an Associate Member of the American Laryngological Association (a physician’s organization). Additional awards include elected membership in Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Society (1975), academic tenure at Boston University (1986), Certificate of Appreciation from the Veterans Administration Cooperative Studies Program (1991), Award of Merit from Sargent College at Boston University (1992), Editor’s Award from the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for publication of the article of highest merit in speech research for 1996, Casselberry Award from the American Laryngological Association for co-authorship (with Dr. Steven Zeitels) of the outstanding manuscript in laryngology (1998),  two Partners in Excellence Awards for accomplishments at the MGH Institute of Health Professions (2000), and an Alumni Fellow Award from the Pennsylvania State University (2008).