Audiology Program News

Since changing to a doctoral program in Audiology (Au.D.) we have graduated our first class as of August 2007. All four graduates passed the Praxis examination in audiology and have found gainful employment in a variety of clinical settings. Graduates include: Dr. Heather Lawson , Dr. Janet Weinert, Dr. Crystal Wiggins, and Dr. Evelyn Williams.

In August, our second group of students will graduate with their Au.D. degrees. This class includes: Kody Brooks, who is completing his externship at Texas Ear Nose and Throat Specialists, Erin Burns, who is a full time extern at Lamar University Speech and Hearing Clinic, Celina Oliveira, a full time extern at Houston Ear Nose and Throat, and Rene Pedroza, an extern at the Tucson Arizona Veterans Administration Hospital.

Meanwhile, our current third year Au.D. students are seeking externships in a variety of settings and locales. Most of our third year students have agreed to placements in either private practices or hospital settings this year. All of them had multiple offers for externship sites and chose thoughtfully and carefully. Joni Klock Ruiz was offered and accepted an externship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center!

We also welcome Kate Foenander to our program this year. Kate is an international student who completed her Master’s degree in Australia and chose to pursue her doctorate in Audiology at Lamar University.

This year our program will accept up to 12 new doctoral students, which is a record number of new students! We look forward to continuing to develop and grow the program indefinitely.

Faculty News

This past year Dr. Vickie Dionne was appointed to the Texas State Licensing Board for Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists by Governor Rick Perry. She has also been asked to serve on the Continuing Education Committee for the American Academy of Audiology.

Dr. Dionne will be presenting at the Texas Speech and Hearing Association conference this February in San Antonio Texas. The presentation is “Ethics in Practice for Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists”.

Dr. James Baer will be co-presenting with Dr. Gail Whitelaw at the Council for Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders in April of 2008. The presentation addresses the use of Preliminary, Comprehensive and Praxis Examinations into Au.D Curricula.

Dr. Baer has also co-authored a chapter on Audiology Practice Management for the Clinical Handbook of Audiology, 6th edition, which should be published this year.

Dr. Jean Andrews, Ph.D., Dr. Dionne, and Dr. Baer are also commencing a research project with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to assess the success rate of newborn infant hearing screenings in Texas. This research may help to improve the rate of follow-up on infants identified with hearing loss.

We are very pleased to announce the addition of a new faculty member in the Audiology Division. Dr. April Burdett will be joining us beginning this summer as a tenure-track faculty member. Dr. Burdett has experience in varied clinical settings and has special interest in electrophysiology and vestibular assessment. Dr. Burdett will be a welcome and valuable addition to our faculty!

Student Research & Scholarships

Currently, we have several doctoral students completing capstone research projects including topics such as:

• Quantifying postural sway as a function of aging
• Motivation to purchase amplification as a correlate to satisfaction with amplification
• The effects of noise on the hearing sensitivity of farmers in southwestern Louisiana
• The benefits of outreach hearing aid education programs to skilled nursing facility staff.
• Changes in dynamic visual acuity as a function of the aging process
• A survey of Texas Audiologists’ salaries: Is the doctor of audiology degree reflected in the pay scale?
• A comparison of speech in noise ability between native and non-native speakers of English.

Several of our students had posters which were proposed and accepted for presentation at the Texas Academy of Audiology (TAA) Convention in November of 2007; the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) convention in November 2007; and the upcoming American Academy of Audiology (AAA) convention in April of 2008. We’re very proud of those students who independently accept the additional work and responsibility of not only completing a research project, but of presenting their findings to their future colleagues.