Nicholas Walker Email & Phone Number

Eden Prairie, Minnesota, United States

Minnetonka, Minnesota

Conducted program effectiveness studies for the Special Needs Initiative (SNI) program and component programs to demonstrate medical cost savings for the program. The SNI program and its sub-programs (Diagnostic Odyssey, and Complex Care) need studies and analysis methods that examine the impact of those programs. Using carefully defined one-to-one control matching and non-parametric analyses, demonstrated ]medical cost savings per child savings compared to the control population for the SNI program and demonstrated a reduction in inpatient and emergency care for the Diagnostic Odyssey program.Designed an enhanced identification method with product owners, and a medical director to improve the identification of members for service by the SNI program. Children with medical and administrative complexity are not homogeneous in how they present to the healthcare system. The past model used for the program was designed to be retrospective and was not identifying members with ongoing needs. Used principals of ensemble methods to stack models of different aspects of medical complexity to create a complexity risk score for each individual child and developed a method to weight those risk scores across an entire family. This resulted in better identification of families who need continuing and ongoing support.Managed three interns and help them develop working models. Coached interns on ways to deconstruct complex problems into problems that can be modeled with machine learning. Provided feedback and training on how to effectively convey projects and outcomes to leaders, project managers, and medical directors. Two interns collaborated on a model that identifies children and high risk of inpatient hospitalizations that is used as a component model in the SNI model; the third intern developed a model of pregnancies that are at a high risk of having a NICU admission.

In clinically defined disorders, it is often not known if there is a single or multiple underlying neurological profile/s. In order to determine atypical biomarkers, I developed a distribution modeling algorithm to examine time-frequency decomposed time series data of individual subjects using a normative sample. From this method we found an overlap in atypical beta oscillations in the right hemisphere of the brain in children and adults with language learning disorders.Neurological time series data is comprised of a mixture of neural activity and noise (environmental and physiological). I applied a combination of filtering, principle component analysis, and independent component analysis to reduce or eliminate noise so that we could extract meaningful data about the timing of neural activity in auditory language perception. There are limited training opportunities for students in the collection and analysis of time-series data. I provided one-on-one training in data collection, applying modern analysis techniques to behavioral data, and the implementation of tools to analyze time-series data. As a result, two students completed statistical and data analyses on multiple projects.Research in child language disorders requires funding, with my mentor, I wrote a 5 year grant complete with multiple studies, data collection plans, budget for 5 years, and training program for the duration of the grant.

Dallas, Texas

Speech pathologist in a public elementary and a public preschool. Assessed and treated children with speech and/or language disorders. Completed individual education plans, and conducted ARD meetings. Met with parents, teachers, administrators, and other professionals to coordinate care and treatment programs for students.

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Long-term substitute kindergarten teacher and speech-language pathologist at a school for children with learning disabilities, language impairments, and high-functioning autism. Responsibilities include: administering language and reading assessments; treating patients one on one, and teaching curriculum to Kindergarten class.

Littleton, Co

Diagnosed and treated patients in an outpatient setting. Assessed and treated patients with articulation disorders, language impairments, reading impairments, cognitive impairments, and voice disorders. Clients were adults and children with speech, language, voice, swallowing and/or cognitive concerns. Wrote detailed treatment plans and daily progress notes. Provided physicians and patients with detailed diagnostic reports.

Auditory processing disorder, dyslexia, and specific language impairments are highly comorbid and require hours of testing to differentially diagnose. By applying linear discriminant analysis and regression trees, I determined the assessments that were most sensitive to separating the disorders and which indicated comorbid conditions. We were able to limit the number of assessments for this population, from 150 to 6 psychometric measures, while still maintaining a high-level of sensitivity and specificity using k-fold cross-validation.Time-frequency data often violate assumptions of parametric analyses which can result in inflated type 1 or type 2 errors. By applying non-parametric analyses to examine condition differences in auditory perception of high- and low-frequency words, we found that beta band oscillations in the right hemisphere differentiate perception of high- and low-frequency words.Selection of measures that are sensitive to group differences while maintaining variability in the data is important for hypothesis driven research and for machine learning. During this grant I selected psychometric measures that elicited a range of performance from participants and could classify children with and without language disorders.

Primary instructor of Introduction to Communication Disorders. Prepared lectures and homework assignments for students. Wrote and administered exams to students. Conducted review sessions for students and graded homework and papers.

Diagnosed and treated patients in an acute care setting, and assessed swallowing at the bedside and using video fluoroscopy, cognitive impairments, and language impairments. Provided treatment for patients with dysphagia, cognitive impairments and language impairments.

Assisted in grading and designing course materials for one section of an undergraduate class per semester. Answered student questions and helped edit homework assignments and exams. Assisted with the courses Introduction to Communication Sciences, and Language Development.

Organized, developed and implemented the summer program collaborating with the Camp Director, Maintenance Director and other staff. Trained camp counselors and led camp activities.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Speech, Language, And Hearing Science; Neuroscience

Master Of Arts (Ma), Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist

Master Of Science (Ms), Mathematics

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Mathematics