Kathryn Waugh Ruckart, MS, CCC-SLP

"My passion lies in clinical care, research, and education focused on voice and upper airway disorders. I'm committed to helping all individuals find their true voice and overcome debilitating cough or breathing issues, empowering them to regain a more fulfilling quality of life."

Kathryn Waugh Ruckart is a certified speech-language pathologist. She treats conditions and disorders that affect the voice and upper airway. These include a wide variety of voice conditions, neurological disorders, chronic cough, globus sensation (lump in the throat) and shortness of breath due to inducible laryngeal obstruction. She provides specialized voice evaluations and treatments, including voice therapy for lesions, muscle tension dysphonia, paresis and paralysis (weakness), atrophy and scarring of the vocal folds.

Additionally, she provides respiratory retraining and gender-affirming voice therapy. She serves as the director of the Voice, Swallowing and Upper Airway Disorders Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellowship Program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. She is also co-chair of the institution's Equality One LGBTQ+ System Resource Group.

Ruckart's research interests are wide-ranging and have recently focused on voice outcomes in people with movement disorders undergoing deep brain stimulation. She received her bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina and her master's degree at East Carolina University.