Dr. Heather Starmer

Biography

Heather Starmer is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Head Neck Cancer Speech Swallowing Rehabilitation Center at Stanford University. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing Disorders and has earned the prestigious Fellow designation from the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) in 2023. Before joining Stanford, she led the head neck cancer rehabilitation program at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated with a BA in Communicative Disorders from California State University, Long Beach in 1998, followed by an MA in Communication Science Disorders from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000. She completed her PhD in Applied Health Research at the University of Liverpool in 2024, with a dissertation focusing on the assessment of head neck lymphedema, particularly regarding patient experience and quality of life. Her research interests include rehabilitation of speech, voice, and swallowing for head neck cancer patients, and she emphasizes the prevention of communication and swallowing disorders associated with radiation and chemotherapy. Dr. Starmer is involved in collaborative research to minimize speech and swallowing difficulties, and she frequently lectures about head neck cancer rehabilitation both nationally and internationally. She is a member of multiple professional societies and serves on several boards related to her field.

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