VIDEO: Meet Your Professor, Dr. Peter Meulenbroek, who helps patients Return to Work after traumatic brain injuries

DR. PETER MEULENBROEK

Peter Meulenbroek, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. His research examines the intersection between traumatic brain injury (TBI), communication ability, and stable employment — particularly those patients who are returning to work after TBI.

Because, he notes, people with TBI often have difficulties returning to work, as they have challenges largely related to cognitive problems with attention, memory and verbal reasoning abilities.

“When someone with TBI returns to work, employment stability is better predicted by social communication ability,” he says. His work uses sociolinguistic description and theory about talk at work to develop new ways to assess and treat persons with TBI who hope to return to stable employment.

“(Another) thing (people) really struggle with after TBI is the social network after injury,” he says. “Social networks tend to dwindle — even close friends, after periods of years, they lose touch with that person. And the literature shows that that's the majority of cases.”

So he tries to identify what the social and communication difficulties will be when these patients go back to work — and undergraduate students help him in this research.  

“I love the students that I’ve had,” he says. “I do expect students who are professionally ready — not perfect — but essentially, students who are intelligent and really have a sense of curiosity and ability.”

Meulenbroek says he’s also interested in bringing in students with disabilities into his lab.

“One of the pitches I give for CSD for master’s students is ‘You're going to have a job. You know our job is super important, and you're going to have a lot of satisfaction with what you get out of helping people meaningfully communicate with others. (It) just helps improve quality of life in general.”