Profile for Kourtney Austin

Brief biography

Dr. Austin is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She earned her Ph.D. in Performing Arts Health at the University of North Texas, and also holds degrees in voice from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and music education from Northwest Missouri State University. Dr. Austin also studied Speech Pathology and Voice Science at the University of Iowa and is a Certified Vocologist. She previously used this expertise in her own business, Heartland Healthy Voices, providing vocal health seminars, voice rehabilitation, private voice lessons, and transgender voice training in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Austin was a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas and has held faculty positions at Midwestern State University, Grayson College, the Community Music School of Webster University, as well as serving as Artistic Director of CHARIS, The St. Louis Women’s Chorus. She is a frequent presenter of performing arts health research throughout the United States and in Australia. Her current research interests include using spectral analysis to quantify characteristics of the vocal onset as it applies to vocal efficiency and fatigue. She has presented on varying topics of performing arts health and voice science all over the world including The Voice Symposium in Shanghai, China; The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia; the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia; The Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia; and The Performing Arts Medicine Association International Symposium. In June 2024, Dr. Austin will present her research at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference in Knoxville, TN. She is a current member of PAMA, PAVA, The Voice Foundation, and NATS.