Paula Tallal

Paula Tallal, Ph.D. [she/her/hers] (Trustee) is a research scientist, professor, board certified clinical psychologist and entrepreneur. She received her B.A in Art History from NYU and Ph.D in Experimental Psychology from Cambridge University. Over the past 40 years she has held academic positions at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, UCSD School of Medicine, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey and The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences; living both in New York City and San Diego. She is currently a Board of Governor’s Professor of Neuroscience Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutger’s University in New Jersey and Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Paula was named one of the “Ten smartest people in the State of New Jersey” by the New Jersey Star Ledger and won the Thomas Edison Inventor of the Year Award for her several dozen U.S. patents leading to the invention of Fast ForWord, the first individually adaptive (“smart”), neuroplasticity-based software, designed to remediate language-based learning disorders. Paula Co-Founded Scientific Learning Corporation in 1996, the company that has brought Fast ForWord to over 3 million struggling learners around the world. Tallal is a sought -after international authority and keynote speaker on language and literacy development and disorders with over 200 academic publications. She was honored to be invited to presented testimony to the U.S. Congress on Dyslexia.

Paula loves choral music and theater. She is proud to have sung with the Cambridge University King’s and Queen’s College Choruses, The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Chorus, The San Diego Master Chorale and The La Jolla Symphony Chorus. She has been a singing member of the San Diego Women’s Chorus since 2012, served on their Board of Directors and is currently on their Board Development and Fundraising Committee.

Paula was in a 32 year relationship with her spouse Colleen Osburn who died in 2014. In her memory Paula established the Colleen Osburn Gratitude Fellowship for the San Diego Women’s Chorus to assure no women is denied the opportunity to sing because of financial concerns. She also had a stone placed on the Diversionary Theater’s patio in Colleen’s memory. Paula has been in a loving relationship with her current partner, Lark Bearden, for the past 7 years.