Susan L. Hura, PhD, is the owner and Principal of SpeechUsability, a consulting firm that helps clients understand and plan for successful speech technology and IVR projects.  SpeechUsability specializes in collecting relevant, actionable data from customers to make self-service automation an intuitive and appealing alternative to speaking to call center agents.  Dr. Hura’s deep experience in call center technologies, human-computer interaction, and speech technologies has enabled SpeechUsability to help clients in the travel, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare industries.  She founded and managed the Center for User Experience at Intervoice, served as Vice President of User Experience at Product Support Solutions, and was a member of the human factors team at Lucent Technologies Bell Labs.  As a faculty member at Purdue University, she cofounded a multidisciplinary team researching novel approaches to speech recognition.  Dr. Hura holds a Doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin.  Dr. Hura has served as Program Chair of the SpeechTEK New York Conference in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and writes the Interact column for Speech Technology Magazine.  She was recently elected president and is a founding board member and of the Association of Voice Interaction Design (AVIxD).