Dr. Beal is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems at Boston University and a research affiliate in the RLE Speech Communication Group at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. He received his master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Toronto in 2000. Dr. Beal took up the position of speech-language pathologist on the neurotrauma and neuro-oncology teams at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto from 2001-2005. While in this role he developed a strong interest in the brain-behavior relationships that govern speech production. This interest led him to pursue advanced research training and he went on to earn his doctoral degree in speech-language pathology and neuroscience in 2010 from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Beal’s research aims to further our understanding of the neural mechanisms that drive speech production and the potential limitations of said mechanisms in disordered speech production with a special emphasis on developmental stuttering.