Reyna L. Gordon, PhD

Dr. Gordon is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she co-directs the Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab. She also has faculty appointments at the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, the Department of Psychology, the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, and the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy. The Lab is a dynamic group that engages Vanderbilt students from a wide range of graduate degree programs and staff and postdocs from diverse academic backgrounds. Dr. Gordon currently leads several National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, including an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and a National Science Foundation Integrative Strategies grant. 

Dr. Gordon received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Arts (Italian minor) from the University of Southern California, an M.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Provence, and a Ph.D. in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences from Florida Atlantic University.  She also completed postdoctoral training in developmental disabilities at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Dr. Gordon has always craved and sought interdisciplinarity in her professional work, leading to her current research program focused on the relationship between rhythm and language abilities from behavioral, cognitive, neural, and genetic perspectives.

Dr. Gordon has enjoyed creating interdisciplinary collaborative opportunities in the field and supporting public awareness of science by developing infrastructure for new initiatives on campus, chairing symposia and other seminar series, fostering research partnerships with community organizations, and serving on the Board of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. Her work has been profiled in the Nashville Scene, NPR’s All Things Considered, the BBC, and PBS.