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Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits (2005)

Chapter: Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
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Appendix D Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

Robert A. Dobie (Chair) is clinical professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of California at Davis, as well as a partner in Dobie Associates. His current professional activities include clinical practice, teaching, research, and consultation in otology (ear disorders), with special interest in medical-legal issues. He is the author of Medical-Legal Evaluation of Hearing Loss (2001) and numerous other publications. He is the recipient of multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and past president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. He is a past member of the boards and executive councils of the National Hearing Conservation Association, the Deafness Research Foundation, and the Council on Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation, as well as a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. At the National Research Council (NRC), he served on the Committee on Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics. He has an M.D. degree from Stanford University (1971).

Robyn Cox is professor at the University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State University), where she has worked since 1977, as well as director of the Hearing Aid Research Laboratory. Her early research was in the development of fitting methods for hearing aids. Since 1986, she has conducted research in amplification, focused on improving methods for fitting hearing aids on older adults and determining the long-term outcomes of the hearing aid fitting and other audiological rehabilitation. Her recent work has involved the study of self-report and subjective outcomes, and she has participated in the development of standardized ques-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×

tionnaires to measure hearing aid fitting outcomes. She served on the NRC’s Committee on Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics and serves as editorial consultant for national and international journals in the field of hearing health care. She has B.S. (1968) and M.A. (1971) degrees from Ball State University and a Ph.D. in audiology from Indiana University (1974).

Robert R. Davila is a member of the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that advises the U.S. president and the Congress on matters related to disability issues. He also holds the Jerry C. Lee endowed chair of studies in technology and the adult learner at National University in La Jolla, California. Davila served as chief executive officer of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1996 to 2003. He also served as assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services in the U.S. Department of Education. Other previous positions include headmaster of the New York School for the Deaf, vice president of Gallaudet University, and president of several national and international organizations related to the education of deaf persons. He has a Ph.D. in educational technology from Syracuse University, an M.A. in special education from Hunter College, and a B.A. in education from Gallaudet University. He has honorary degrees from Stonehill College, Hunter College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Gallaudet University.

Marilyn E. Demorest is professor of psychology and vice provost for faculty affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her academic and research interests are in psychometrics, quantitative methods, and rehabilitative audiology. She is co-developer of the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired, a self-assessment tool that measures psychosocial adjustment in adults with hearing impairment. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, as well as a past president of the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology. She has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the Johns Hopkins University (1969).

Bruce J. Gantz is the Brian F. McCabe distinguished chair and head of the Department Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. His research interests include cochlear implant outcomes and device development, as well as clinical trials involving the treatment of ear disease. He is on the editorial boards of several publications relating to otology, head and neck surgery, cochlear implants, and otorhinolaringology. He has received numerous grants and awards, including grants from the NIH to study cochlear implantation, autoimmune ear disease, sudden deafness, and research training in otolaryngology. He was elected to the National Academies’

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×

Institute of Medicine in 2000. He is a director of the American Board of Otolaryngology, has been president of the American Neurotology Society and the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, and is a member of several other professional organizations and serves on many of their committees. He has M.D. (1974) and M.S. (1980) degrees from the University of Iowa.

Sandra Gordon-Salant is professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a member of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology and has obtained continuous funding over the past 20 years from the National Institutes of Health for her research on age-related hearing loss. Other memberships include the Acoustical Society of America, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Auditory Society, and the American Academy of Audiology. She has published numerous articles and book chapters pertaining to age-related hearing loss, speech perception, auditory temporal processing, and hearing aids. She is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and served as editor of the hearing section of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. She has a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Susan Jerger is Ashbel Smith professor and director of the Children’s Speech Processing Laboratory in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as research professor in the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. She has been funded for 19 years by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, to study the effect of childhood auditory disorders on the development of spoken word recognition. She is a member of numerous national and international professional societies, and has presented the prestigious Carhart lecture at the American Auditory Society. She was editor-in-chief of Ear and Hearing, the official journal of the American Auditory Society, for a decade (1992-2002). She has a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine.

William G. Johnson is professor of economics in the School of Health Management and Policy and the Department of Economics in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. His current research focuses on access to care, occupational illness and injury, the effects of health on work and other activities, health care outcomes, and the development of health information systems for use in research. He directs the university’s Center for Health Economics and Policy Research and teaches graduate courses in health and economics. He is a member of the NIH Review Panel for Health Services Research and an associate scientist of the Institute of Work and Health in Toronto. He serves on numerous national and international technical advisory committees for health re-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×

search, as well as on the editorial board of The Spine Journal. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Rutgers University.

Karen Iler Kirk is associate professor of otolaryngology—head and neck surgery and the Psi Iota Xi distinguished investigator in pediatric speech and hearing at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Before joining the Indiana faculty in 1991, she held research and academic positions at the House Ear Institute and the University of Iowa, including membership on House’s pioneering cochlear implant research team from 1981 to 1985. She is the director of the DeVault Otologic Research Laboratory. Her research, which has been supported by NIH, the American Hearing Research Foundation, the Deafness Research Foundation, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation, examines speech perception, spoken word recognition, and language development in pediatric cochlear implant users. She recently cochaired the group that produced a technical report on cochlear implants for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She has a Ph.D. in hearing science from the University of Iowa.

Irene W. Leigh is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, at Gallaudet University. With regard to her specialty, deafness, she has conducted research in the areas of attachment, parenting, identity, depression, and adjustment to cochlear implants. She has an extensive publications record in these areas as well as the mental health and psychotherapy of deaf clients. In addition to being a member of various organizations that serve deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, she is also listed in the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. She serves on the American Psychological Association Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest, is chair of the deaf and hard of hearing section of the Alexander Graham Bell Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, The Volta Review, and the Journal of the American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association. She also chairs the Council on Graduate Education at Gallaudet University and the Gallaudet University Press editorial board. Recent honors include the Estelle Samuelson award from the League for the Hard of Hearing, the Schaefer professorship at Gallaudet University, and distinguished faculty for 2003. She has a Ph.D. from New York University.

Yvonne S. Sininger is a professor in residence in the Division of Head & Neck Surgery of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focus is human infant hearing and pediatric audiological disorders. Previous NIH-funded projects included a study to define auditory sensitivity in healthy newborns using auditory brainstem response and a study on the efficacy of auditory brainstem response and otoacoustic emissions for newborn hear-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×

ing screening. She has recently completed a project to characterize the nature of auditory neuropathy and edited a book on the subject. Her current research project evaluates factors that influence the auditory outcomes of infants and children with hearing loss who receive amplification. She is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and a former member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Audiology. She serves as a representative to the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing and is a board member of the International Evoked Response Study Group. She has B.A. and M.A. degrees from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in speech and hearing science from the University of California, San Francisco.

William A. Yost is professor of psychology, adjunct professor at the Parmly Hearing Institute, and adjunct professor of otolaryngology at Loyola University Chicago. He has published numerous reports, articles, book chapters, and books in areas of hearing science. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received an honorary degree from the Colorado College in 1997 and several service awards from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology; he was faculty member of the year in 1994 and served as associate vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at Loyola University Chicago. He served as chair of the NRC Committee on Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics. He is currently on boards of the Psychonomic Society (associate editor), the National Academies (a national associate), the American National Standards Institute, the Acoustical Society of America (former vice-president), the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (former secretary-treasurer and president), and NIH (former chair of the communication disorders review group). He has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Indiana University.

Susan Van Hemel (Study Director) is a senior program officer in the Center for the Study of Behavior and Development of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the NRC. Her recent projects at the NRC include a study of Social Security disability determination for individuals with visual impairments and a workshop on technology for adaptive aging. She has also done work for a previous employer on vision requirements for commercial drivers and on commercial driver fatigue. For over 20 years she managed and performed studies on a variety of topics related to human performance and training. She is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and its technical groups on perception and performance and aging. She has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the Johns Hopkins University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×
Page 286
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×
Page 287
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×
Page 288
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×
Page 289
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2005. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11099.
×
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Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study.

Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

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