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Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary (2014)

Chapter: Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
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Appendix B

Speaker Biographical Sketches

Marilyn Albert, Ph.D., is professor of neurology and the director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is also the director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Her major research interests are in the area of cognitive change with age, and disease-related changes of cognition (with a particular focus on the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease). Her research has focused on the relationship of cognitive change to brain structure and function, as assessed through imaging and other biomarkers. She has written more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.

Brenda Battat, M.S., is the retired executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA). During 24 years with the HLAA, 5 as executive director, she led nationwide advocacy efforts to change the way society views hearing loss, pushed for accessible and affordable hearing health care and consumer choice in the marketplace, promoted hearing-friendly environments through technology such as looping and captioning, and successfully advocated for hearing-aid-compatible mobile products. She upheld the philosophy of self-help and encouraged and taught consumers to self-advocate. Ms. Battat has served on government, professional, and business advisory boards, including the U.S. Access Board’s Telecommunications Access Advisory Committee, the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer/Disability Advisory Committee, the AT&T Advisory Panel on Access and Aging, the National Advisory Group—National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the American and Northwest Airlines Consumer Advisory Committees, and the National Institute on Deafness and Other

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
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Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Ms. Battat received an M.S. in education from Indiana University and B.Sc. in physical therapy from St. Mary’s Hospital, London, England. For her work she received the Sheldon Williams Itzkoff Leadership Award (2010); Robert H. Weitbrecht Telecommunications Access Award (2007); Oticon Focus on People Advocacy Award (2005); and Self Help for Hard of Hearing People National Access Award (2002).

Lucille B. Beck, Ph.D., is chief consultant, Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services, as well as director of the Audiology and Speech Pathology Program in the Office of Patient Care Services, Veterans Health Administration for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). She is also chief of Audiology and Speech Pathology Service at the Washington, DC, VA Medical Center. As chief consultant for Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services, her responsibilities include oversight and direction for Audiology and Speech Pathology Service, Blind Rehabilitation Service, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service and Polytrauma, Recreation Therapy Service, and Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service. Dr. Beck received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive Service in 2000, and in 2007 she received the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive Service. The Pennsylvania College of Optometry School of Audiology conferred an honorary doctor of science degree on Dr. Beck in 2008 for her commitment to Americans with hearing loss. Dr. Beck received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. She has jointly held faculty appointments at Gallaudet University, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland. She has authored numerous publications and scientific papers and is a well-known presenter on topics ranging from amplification, outcomes, patient satisfaction, professional issues in audiology, and rehabilitation for the nation’s veterans. She is a recognized expert in hearing technology.

Stephen Berger is president of TEM Consulting, an engineering services and consulting firm in Austin, Texas. Mr. Berger has an extensive background in standards development. He has served on three federal advisory committees, two of which were charged with issues related to disability access. He has chaired five standards that have been adopted by the Federal Communications Commission into the Code of Federal Regulations. He has also been president of the International Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers.

Nikolai Bisgaard, M.Sc., serves as vice president of Intellectual Property Rights and industry relations at GN ReSound A/S. He has worked for GN ReSound since 1978 and served as vice president of research and development there for 15 years. He has been a director at GN Store Nord A/S since

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

2006. He currently manages the intellectual property rights function at GN ReSound while also spending significant time on hearing industry politics and professional issues related to hearing aid use, including responsibility for the biannual International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research sponsored by GN ReSound. He is also cochair of the scientific program for Nordic Audiology College. Mr. Bisgaard has been active in the European Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association (EHIMA) for decades and is currently chairman of the Market Development Committee, where initiatives for informing the public on hearing matters as well as consumer research are managed. From 2007 to 2010 he was a major contributor to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) 15927 standard for services offered by hearing aid professionals. He is the author of many scientific articles ranging from clinical testing of feedback suppression systems to standard audiograms for hearing aid characterization. He holds an M.Sc. in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, where he mastered in psychoacoustics.

Katherine Bouton is the author of Shouting Won’t Help, a memoir of adult-onset hearing loss published in 2013 by Sarah Crichton/Farrar Straus and Giroux. She is a former editor at the New York Times, where she was deputy editor of the Sunday magazine for 10 years. She also held senior editing positions for Science Times, the Sunday Book Review, and Culture. She is at work on a second book on hearing loss, tentatively titled Come to Your Senses: Learn to Live Better with Hearing Loss. She has had progressive bilateral hearing loss since 1978 and in September 2009 received a cochlear implant. Her writing and speaking now focus on hearing loss and other disability issues. She is a graduate of Vassar College and is a member of the board of trustees of the HLAA.

Robert Burkard, Ph.D., CCC-A, is professor and chair in the Department of Rehabilitation Science, University at Buffalo. His research interests have included acoustic calibration, auditory electrophysiology (in particular, auditory evoked potentials), vestibular/balance function/dysfunction, functional imaging, and aging. His professional interests currently involve acoustical standards and health care economics.

Theresa (Terry) Hnath Chisolm, Ph.D., CCC-A, completed her undergraduate degree at Lehman College, her master’s degree in audiology at Montclair State College, and her Ph.D. in speech and hearing sciences at the Graduate School of the City University of New York (CUNY). She joined the faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Florida as an assistant professor in 1988. She is currently a full professor and department chair, having served as chair since 2004. Her

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

area of research and clinical expertise is rehabilitative audiology in children and adults. She has received funding for her research from the NIDCD/NIH, VA Merit Reviews, and contracts with the hearing aid industry. Dr. Chisolm currently is co-principal investigator on a U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs grant for training master’s degree students in speech-language pathology to work with children with hearing loss who come from culturally diverse backgrounds from a listening and spoken language perspective. In 2011 Dr. Chisolm received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Academy of Audiology.

Cynthia Compton-Conley, Ph.D., has enjoyed a distinguished career as an audiologist, educator, consultant, and consumer advocate. Her in-depth knowledge of assistive technologies for providing receptive communication access has made her a popular public speaker. Dr. Compton-Conley developed a proven systems engineering approach to hearing enhancement that skillfully integrates needs assessment, technology insertion, and related training to provide receptive communication access tailored to each individual’s lifestyle and hearing challenges at home, in the workplace, and in other relevant venues. An alumnus of Rutgers University, Vanderbilt University, and CUNY, Dr. Compton-Conley taught doctoral students in audiology for many years at Gallaudet University, where she also served as founder and director of the Gallaudet Assistive Devices Center. She has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Special Friends of Hearing Impaired People Award from the Hearing Loss Association and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Academy of Audiology. Following her teaching career, she served, for 2 years, as director of hearing wellness at Etymotic Research, where she developed a website, www.soundstrategy.com, that serves as a resource for individuals seeking guidance on hearing enhancement techniques. Currently, she is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Compton-Conley Consulting, whose services include (1) hearing enhancement coaching to individuals, providers, corporations, and government agencies, (2) ADA compliance training and expert witness services, (3) consulting to industry and working groups who are leveraging leading-edge/bleeding-edge technologies toward hearing enhancement solutions, and (4) providing website/blogosphere content associated with hearing wellness, needs assessment, and new technology.

Karen J. Cruickshanks, Ph.D., completed her Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in 1987 and has been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 1990. Her research program is studying the health problems of aging through epidemiological cohort studies. The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
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(EHLS) is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) (AG11099) to study hearing, olfactory, and cognitive impairments in a population-based cohort of 3,500 older residents of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The focus of this research is on the roles of inflammation and vascular factors on age-related disorders. In 2004, a new study of the adult offspring of the EHLS participants was funded by the NIA, National Eye Institute, and NIDCD (AG021917) to study the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to age-related sensory impairments. She was the principal investigator of the EpiSense Audiometry Reading Center for the Hispanic Community Health Study, a multicenter study including hearing testing for 16,000 Latinos. A major theme of her research is the link between subclinical atherosclerosis and the sensory and neurological disorders of aging.

Regina Davis Moss, Ph.D., M.P.H., MCHES, is the associate executive director of public health policy and practice for the American Public Health Association, where she oversees a broad portfolio of programs and activities ranging from continuing education to global health. She has nearly 20 years of experience managing national health promotion and disease prevention initiatives addressing such areas as reproductive health, healthy aging, obesity prevention, health policy, and sustained capacity in public health. Formerly, Dr. Davis Moss held a senior management position for a healthy eating and active living education effort for the federal government. Prior to that, she worked for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), where she helped launched the Kaiser Health News online information service and served as the senior producer. Dr. Davis Moss came to KFF after serving as a supervisor for one of the first U.S. research studies to investigate the prevalence of uterine fibroid tumors. She also served as a public health service fellow in the Office on Women’s Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Davis Moss is a master certified health education specialist; a member of the Delta Omega Honorary Public Health Society; and author of several journal articles and reports focusing on gestational weight gain, health communications, and family health policy. She is a member of the executive board of the National Healthy Start Association, the Ad Council’s Advisory Committee on Public Issues, and an appointed member of the District of Columbia Mayor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Nutrition. Dr. Davis Moss earned a doctorate of philosophy in maternal and child health from the University of Maryland, College Park, a master’s degree in public health from George Washington University, a B.S. in biology from Howard University, and a public health certificate in performance improvement from the University of Minnesota. Her professional areas of interest include women’s reproductive health, adolescent health, and health equity.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

Amy M. Donahue, Ph.D., presently serves as deputy director, Division of Scientific Programs, and coordinator of the Hearing and Balance/Vestibular Sciences Program at the NIDCD/NIH. She is responsible for overseeing the program planning, coordination, and conduct of grant research in hearing and balance/vestibular sciences. She has been at the NIDCD since 1991 and has been responsible for the creation of numerous scientific initiatives in hearing and balance sciences. Many of her activities have been instrumental in increasing NIDCD support for translational research, clinical research, and patient-oriented outcomes research activities. Dr. Donahue received her master’s degree in audiology (1979) and her Ph.D. in speech and hearing science (1985) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a member of several professional organizations, has numerous professional publications and presentations, has served on various organizational and technical committees, and has received awards of recognition. Dr. Donahue has cultivated collaborative relationships with the extramural research community, professional organizations, and numerous federal agency partners.

Judy R. Dubno, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Her research, which is supported by grants from the NIDCD/NIH, focuses on auditory perception and speech recognition in adverse listening conditions and how perception changes with age, hearing loss, hearing aids, and training. She served on the NIDCD Advisory Council of the NIH, as president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, and is currently president-elect of the Acoustical Society of America. She is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the recipient of the James Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology.

Richard Einhorn is a critically acclaimed composer and classical record producer. Since losing much of his hearing overnight in 2010, he has used his lifelong knowledge of audio technology to hear better in situations where hearing aids are inadequate. He has also become a well-known advocate for improved assistive listening technologies. His advocacy for public use of induction loop systems and his innovative use of an iPhone to hear better in noisy restaurants have been featured on NPR and in numerous articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Business Week, and other major media. On February 22, 2014, Mr. Einhorn’s oratorio with silent film, Voices of Light, was performed at the National Cathedral of Washington.

Luigi Ferrucci, M.D., Ph.D., is a geriatrician and epidemiologist who conducts research on the causal pathways leading to progressive physical and cognitive decline in older persons. In September 2002, he became the chief

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

of the Longitudinal Studies Section at NIA and the director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging. Dr. Ferrucci received a medical degree and board certification in 1980, a board certification in geriatrics in 1982, and Ph.D. in biology and pathophysiology of aging in 1998 at the University of Florence, Italy. He spent many years as associate professor of biology, human physiology, and statistics at the University of Florence. Between 1985 and 2002 he was chief of geriatric rehabilitation at the Department of Geriatric Medicine and director of the Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology at the Italian National Institute of Aging. During the same period, he collaborated with the NIA Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry, where he spent several periods as visiting scientist. Dr. Ferrucci has made major contributions in the design of many epidemiological studies conducted in the United States and in Europe, including the European Longitudinal Study on Aging, the “ICare Dicomano Study,” the AKEA study of Centenarians in Sardinia, and the Women’s Health and Aging Study. He was also the principal investigator of the InCHIANTI study, a longitudinal study conducted in the Chianti geographical area (Tuscany, Italy), looking at risk factors for mobility disability in older persons. Dr. Ferrucci has redesigned the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging to retain the wealth of data collected over more than 50 years while introducing new questions on the nature of aging that have emerged in the recent literature. Dr. Ferrucci is scientific director, NIA, since May 2011.

James Firman, Ed.D., M.B.A., has been the president and CEO of the National Council on Aging (NCOA) since 1995. Under his leadership, NCOA has developed many nationally acclaimed programs to improve the health, independence, and continuing contributions of older adults. Firman has also served in several leadership roles in the field of aging, including chair of the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (twice), chair of the Access to Benefits Coalition, and board member of Generations United and the National Human Services Assembly. Prior to joining NCOA as president and CEO, Firman was president and CEO of the United Seniors Health Cooperative (USHC), a nonprofit consumer organization, for 10 years. At the USHC, he directed the development of the nation’s first line-of-credit reverse mortgages; the Cooperative Caring Network, a major community-wide volunteer service-credit program that helps frail and disabled persons remain at home; and early generations of benefits screening software. From 1981 to 1984, Firman served as a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he helped develop initiatives in aging and health care finance, as well as the model Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers program. He is a cofounder of Grantmakers in Aging. Firman is a noted expert and consumer advocate on many issues affecting older persons, including public policy, long-term care, health insurance, finance issues, and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

intergenerational programs. He has provided expert testimony before many congressional committees. He has written several books and many articles on issues in aging, for consumers as well as professionals. Dr. Firman holds a master’s degree in business administration and a doctorate in education from Columbia University.

Valerie Fletcher has been executive director since 1998 of the Boston-based Institute for Human Centered Design, an international educational and design nonprofit organization founded in 1978. The organizational mission is to advance the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages and abilities through excellence in design. Ms. Fletcher writes, lectures, and works internationally. Her research focus is engaging user/experts in analysis of the usability in places and in products. She is a special advisor on inclusive design to the Open Society Institute, the governments of France and Singapore, and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Ms. Fletcher has a master’s degree in ethics and public policy from Harvard University. The Boston Society of Architects awarded her the Women in Design award in 2005. She cochairs the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts and is a founding member of the International Association for Universal Design in Tokyo.

David Green, M.P.H., has worked with many organizations to make medical technology and health care services sustainable, affordable, and accessible to all. Mr. Green is a MacArthur Fellow and an Ashoka Fellow and has been recognized by the Schwab Foundation as a leading social entrepreneur. Mr. Green directed the establishment of Aurolab (India) to produce affordable intraocular lenses (now with 10 percent of the global market share), suture, and pharmaceuticals. He has developed high-volume, quality eye care programs that are affordable and self-sustaining from user fees. At Aravind Eye Hospital in India, which performs more than 370,000 surgeries per year, 50 percent of the care is provided free of charge or below cost, yet the hospital is able to generate substantial surplus revenue. He has helped to develop major eye care programs in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Nepal, and Tanzania. Within this paradigm of “empathetic capitalism,” he now works to create social investing funds to support sustainable social enterprises (The Eye Fund with Deutsche Bank for $15M). He cofounded Sound World Solutions, a social enterprise to make affordable hearing devices with a novel fitting, and Brien Holden Vision Diagnostics to design unique and affordable ways to detect eye disease, diabetes, and neurological disorders. He works with the Pacific Vision Foundation to establish an eye institute serving all people in northern California. Mr. Green is also vice president at Ashoka, where he leads an effort to reduce health care costs in the United States. He graduated

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in general studies (1978) and a master’s degree in public health (1982). He is on the faculty of Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. He is the recipient of the 2009 Spirit of Helen Keller award for humanitarian efforts in blindness prevention; is the recipient of the 2009 University of Michigan Humanitarian Service Award; and was selected by University of Michigan engineering students as a leading social entrepreneur alumnus. He is on the boards of the University of Michigan School of Business Social Venture Fund and the Stanford Biomedical Fellowship for India and is on the advisory board of the Seva Foundation.

Howard J. Hoffman, M.A., is director, Epidemiology and Statistics Program, NIDCD/NIH. Since 1992, he has led this research program, which focuses on the prevalence, incidence, risk factors, and preventive interventions for conditions or disorders of NIDCD’s seven mission areas: hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed biomedical/scientific articles, written several book chapters, and edited 2 books. He has served as NIDCD project officer for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Hearing, Balance, and Chemosensory components and for other epidemiologic studies (for example, the 2008 National Health Interview Survey [NHIS] Dizziness and Balance Supplement and the 2012 NHIS Voice, Speech and Language Supplement). He was NIDCD lead coordinator for the 8 hearing health objectives in Healthy People 2010 and continues in this role for Healthy People 2020, which was expanded to include 23 objectives embracing all 7 of the institute’s mission areas.

Alan M. Jette, Ph.D., M.P.H., currently directs Boston University’s Health and Disability Research Institute. From 1996 to 2004 he served as professor and dean of Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Dr. Jette currently serves as research director for the New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center based at Boston University Medical Center and as associate director of the Boston Claude Pepper Center on Aging Research. Dr. Jette currently directs the Boston Rehabilitation Outcomes Measurement Center, funded by the NIH National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research. He received a B.S. in physical therapy from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1973 and his M.P.H. (1975) and Ph.D. (1979) in public health from the University of Michigan.

Frank R. Lin, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of otolaryngology, geriatric medicine, mental health, and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Lin completed his medical education, residency in otolaryngology, and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

Ph.D. in clinical investigation at Johns Hopkins. He completed further otologic fellowship training in Lucerne, Switzerland. Dr. Lin’s clinical practice is dedicated to otology and the medical and surgical management of hearing loss. His epidemiologic research focuses on how hearing loss impacts the health and functioning of older adults and the role of hearing rehabilitative strategies in potentially mitigating these effects. In particular, his research group has demonstrated that hearing loss in older adults is strongly and independently associated with the risk of cognitive decline, incident dementia, impairments in physical functioning and mobility, and greater health care resource utilization. He collaborates extensively with researchers across multiple fields, including gerontology, cognitive neuroscience, audiology, and epidemiology, and he has collaborative working relationships with individuals in industry, government, and nonprofit advocacy organizations. His research has been extensively covered in the media, including the New York Times and the BBC, and he has appeared on CBS This Morning and the Charlie Rose show.

Eric A. Mann, M.D., Ph.D., CAPT, USPHS, serves as the clinical deputy director for the Division of Ophthalmic and Ear, Nose, and Throat Devices in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He earned his M.D. and his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1988. After his internship in general surgery at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford, Connecticut, he completed a residency in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, in 1993. He is board certified in his specialty and previously served as attending surgeon at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (1993–1997) in Washingon, DC, and as senior staff surgeon at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland (1999–2001). He holds an appointment as assistant professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda and serves as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service. He has been actively involved in the premarket regulation of devices since his arrival at CDRH in 2001.

Nicole Marrone, Ph.D., CCC-A, holds the James S. and Dyan Pignatelli/Unisource Clinical Chair in Audiologic Rehabilitation for Adults at the University of Arizona and is an assistant professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Her research investigates hearing loss and rehabilitation in adults. She is currently collaborating with public health researchers and community health workers to increase access to hearing healthcare among older adults on the U.S.-Mexico border. This interdisciplinary research is supported by the NIH.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

Fiona Miller, Ph.D., is an associate professor of health policy in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and she heads the Division of Health Policy and Ethics at the Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative at the University of Toronto. Her program of research centers on health technology policy, including the dynamics of health technology development, assessment, and adoption within systems of health research and health care.

James Pacala, M.D., M.S., a board-certified family physician and geriatrician, is Distinguished Teaching Professor and associate head, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Pacala is board chair of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). He has performed research and published extensively on models of care delivery to geriatric populations and on innovative teaching methods. In addition, Dr. Pacala has served as co-author of the AGS practice handbook Geriatrics at Your Fingertips, now in its 15th edition, with more than 250,000 copies sold. Dr. Pacala was co-editor-in-chief of the AGS’s comprehensive geriatrics resource, the Geriatrics Review Syllabus (7th edition), published in 2010. He is extensively involved in medical student education nationally and at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Pacala has received several awards for his research, teaching, and clinical care, including AGS’s Outstanding Achievement for Clinical Investigation Award (2002), the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award (1999), the University of Minnesota’s All-University Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education Teaching Award (2002), and the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center Award for Excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching (2009). He received his baccalaureate degree from Carleton College and his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. After completing a residency in family medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Dr. Pacala obtained a master’s degree in chronic disease epidemiology from Brown University and completed two fellowships, one in health services research in gerontology (at Brown University) and the other in clinical geriatrics (at the University of Connecticut). He has been on the faculty at the University of Minnesota since 1992.

Kathleen Pichora-Fuller, Ph.D., is a full professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She is also an adjunct scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest and is a guest professor at the Linneaus Centre for Hearing and Deafness Research at Linköping University in Sweden. She completed a B.A. in linguistics at the University of Toronto (1977) and a M.Sc. in audiology and speech sciences at the University of British Columbia (1980).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
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She worked as a clinical audiologist and then the supervisor of audiology at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and then she returned to complete a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Toronto (1991). Until 2002, she was a faculty member in the faculty of medicine and director of the Institute for Hearing Accessibility Research at the University of British Columbia. Her research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and she is the hearing expert for the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging. She is now translating her lab-based research to address the needs of older adults who suffer from both hearing and cognitive impairments. She was president of the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists (1984–1987) and served on the executive boards of the Canadian Acoustical Association (1998–2002, 2011–present), the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (1997–2003), and the Canadian Academy of Audiology (2002–2004). She was also the Canadian representative to the International Society of Audiology (2004–2010). She is presently on the editorial boards of two international journals.

Thomas Powers, M.D., is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Powers has been a solo practioner for 25 years in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Carole Rogin, M.A., is a speech-language pathologist by training. She worked as a sleep-language pathologist for 5 years and then joined the staff at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Ms. Rogin joined the Hearing Industries Association as its first director of market development in 1980. Since that time she has served not only as the director of market development but also as the president and executive director of the association. Her role has been working to bring the industry together to strengthen the ties between the manufacturers and the dispensing and consumer communities.

Gabrielle Saunders, Ph.D., is associate director of the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR), Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, Oregon, and associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Oregon Health and Science University, also in Portland. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Saunders’s research program has worked to optimize outcomes of auditory rehabilitation by furthering the understanding of hearing-related behaviors and individual differences that impact outcomes. To this end, she has made contributions to the field through the development of questionnaires and educational and counseling interventions. Her work focuses on understanding and changing hearing-related behaviors, optimizing hearing rehabilitation outcomes, and researching how to prevent hearing loss. She

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
×

has several ongoing funded research studies, including work examining hearing health care behaviors of help seeking, the use of auditory rehabilitation and hearing conservation from the perspective of health behavior theory, the application of principles of adult learning theory and a universal approach to health literacy to improve delivery of information to patients during clinical encounters, and the examination of interventions for auditory rehabilitation to obtain an evidence base for their effectiveness. In addition to her research endeavors, Dr. Saunders oversees student mentoring and training programs at the NCRAR, chairs the biennial NCRAR conferences, and directs other NCRAR education and outreach programs.

Margaret I. Wallhagen, Ph.D., GNP-BC, AGSF, FAAN, is a professor of gerontological nursing and a geriatric nurse practitioner in the School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She received her initial nursing degree from St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York, her baccalaureate and master’s degrees from UCSF, and her doctoral degree in nursing from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her prior clinical nursing experience has included critical care nursing and precepting undergraduate nursing students. Since joining the faculty at UCSF in 1988, she has taught gerontological nursing at both the masters and doctoral level, and works as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner. Dr. Wallhagen has conducted a number of research projects in gerontology and chronic care management. Her research and publications focus on studies of the experience of control in caregivers and in persons with diabetes; education and self-management in diabetes; successful aging for persons with chronic conditions; self-care and symptom management; cross-cultural interventions to support family caregivers with dementia; family conflict and coping; and the impact of hearing impairment on older adults. Her research and publications have focused on the areas of informal caregiving, the experience of control, successful aging and diabetes, but with a major focus for over a decade on the impact of hearing impairment on older adults and their families. She recently completed a 4-year longitudinal study of the experience of hearing impairment in older adults and their partners and is currently working on a project that is testing an intervention to embed hearing screening and education into primary care settings. In January 2006, Dr. Wallhagen became the director of the UCSF/John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence as it entered its second 5 years of funding. This center’s mission is to prepare a cadre of nurses who have the research, leadership, and educational expertise necessary to facilitate the preparation of future nurse leaders and to meet the needs of the growing population of older adults. Most recently, Dr. Wallhagen became the senior nurse faculty mentor for the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program, a program designed to prepare participants to develop and apply new knowledge for the ongoing improvement of health care ser-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
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vices for the VA and the nation. In addition to her teaching and research work, Dr. Wallhagen has been involved with and has served on the board of the Family Caregiver Alliance, a nonprofit organization that supports family caregivers, and Bread for the World, an organization that works for policies to eliminate hunger worldwide. Over the past several years she has worked with the Hearing Loss Association of America. She is currently on the board of trustees of the association and is committed to facilitating the achievement of its mission.

Barbara Weinstein, Ph.D., is a professor of audiology and speech language hearing sciences and the founding executive officer of the health sciences doctoral programs and the Au.D. program at the Graduate School and University Center, CUNY. Dr. Weinstein earned her Ph.D. in audiology at Columbia University, having written her dissertation on social isolation and hearing loss in the elderly. The focus of her research has been on documenting and quantifying the psychosocial effects of hearing loss in older adults, quantifying the psychosocial effects of hearing loss, determining the epidemiology of hearing loss in older adults, and performing outcomes assessment. More recently, she has transitioned to promoting patient-centered care among older adults with hearing loss and educating primary care physicians regarding identification of older adults with hearing loss. Dr. Weinstein is the author of Geriatric Audiology, volumes 1 and 2. She is the co-developer of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly and for Adults, a self-report scale used globally to quantify the functional effects of hearing loss on older adults and family members. The recipient of numerous awards for her contribution to the understanding of the psychosocial effects of hearing loss on older adults, Dr. Weinstein is the author of more than 75 manuscripts on hearing loss in older adults.

Charlotte Yeh, M.D., FACEP, is the chief medical officer for AARP Services, Inc. She is responsible for working with AARP’s health carriers on programs that lead to enhanced care for older adults. Dr. Yeh has more than 30 years of health care experience—as a practitioner of emergency medicine at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Tufts Medical Center, as the medical director for the National Heritage Insurance Company, as a Medicare Part B claims contractor, and as the regional administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Boston. Dr. Yeh is widely recognized for her commitment to and passion for the health care consumer and has received numerous honors for her efforts on behalf of patients. Dr. Yeh received a B.A. from Northwestern University and her medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School. She completed her internship in general surgery at the University of Washington and her residency in emergency medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2014. Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18735.
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Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging: Workshop Summary Get This Book
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Being able to communicate is a cornerstone of healthy aging. People need to make themselves understood and to understand others to remain cognitively and socially engaged with families, friends, and other individuals. When they are unable to communicate, people with hearing impairments can become socially isolated, and social isolation can be an important driver of morbidity and mortality in older adults. Despite the critical importance of communication, many older adults have hearing loss that interferes with their social interactions and enjoyment of life. People may turn up the volume on their televisions or stereos, miss words in a conversation, go to fewer public places where it is difficult to hear, or worry about missing an alarm or notification. In other cases, hearing loss is much more severe, and people may retreat into a hard-to-reach shell. Yet fewer than one in seven older Americans with hearing loss use hearing aids, despite rapidly advancing technologies and innovative approaches to hearing health care. In addition, there may not be an adequate number of professionals trained to address the growing need for hearing health care for older adults. Further, Medicare does not cover routine hearing exams, hearing aids, or exams for fitting hearing aids, which can be prohibitively expensive for many older adults.

Hearing Loss and Healthy Aging is the summary of a workshop convened by the Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence in January 2014 on age-related hearing loss. Researchers, advocates, policy makers, entrepreneurs, regulators, and others discussed this pressing social and public health issue. This report examines the ways in which age-related hearing loss affects healthy aging, and how the spectrum of public and private stakeholders can work together to address hearing loss in older adults as a public health issue.

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