Melissa A. Redford is Professor of Linguistics at University of Oregon, USA, with a broad cognitive sciences background. She received her PhD in Psychology at the University of Texas and completed an NRSA Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship in Computer Science, also at the University of Texas, before joining the faculty at the University of Oregon in 2002. Her research focuses on the development and structure of the speech plan and on the parameters that control rate, rhythm, emphasis, and style changes in spoken language.