What is your hometown?
I grew up in Ames, Iowa.
When did you join the UI faculty?
I graduated from the University of Iowa in 1989 and left to accept a faculty position at Arizona State University. I came back to the UI as a Research Scientist in the Otolaryngology Department a couple years later. I joined the faculty in fall of 1999.
How/when did you become interested in science and medicine?
I was aware of speech pathology and audiology as a field from an early age because my younger sister spent many years in speech therapy. I knew I wanted a career in a health related field and chose audiology primarily because it did not require chemistry as an undergraduate. I graduated with my MA in 1983 and then had the opportunity to work with a group of PhD Audiologist at the VAMC in Long Beach, California. They were all actively involved in research and allowed me to collaborate. It was that early experience with research that convinced me to go back to school to pursue my PhD.
Is there a teacher or mentor who helped shape your career?
Paul Abbas directed my doctoral research efforts and is the person who was most influential in shaping my career. He invited me to join the Iowa Cochlear Implant Team as a PhD student and that experience really shaped the rest of my career. Paul Abbas is my mentor and I feel very lucky to have been able to continue to collaborate with him professionally.
How or why did you choose the UI?
Both the Department of Otolaryngology and the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology are consistently ranked as nationally as one of the best programs in the country. The Cochlear Implant Team at the University of Iowa, headed by Dr. Bruce Gantz, is also one of the best in nation. The opportunities and support available to me here were exceptional. Those facts, coupled with the fact that I am from Iowa originally, made the University of Iowa an obvious choice.
What kinds of professional opportunities or advantages does being a faculty member at Iowa provide? What about challenges?
In our field it is rare to find such close collaboration between faculty in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology and faculty in the Department of Otolaryngology. That close collaboration is by far the most advantageous thing about working at Iowa.
As I see it, the biggest challenge we face at the UI today is finding a way to cope with shrinking budgets.
Please describe your professional interests?
I am an audiologist who is interested in auditory physiology and cochlear implants. My research is applied and typically centers on finding new ways to incorporate electrophysiologic recording techniques in clinical practice.
What are some of your outside interests?
I have two young children who occupy most of my time when I am not at work. I spend endless hours shuffling them around from one activity to the next.
Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your professional work?
Persistence and hard work seem to be the keys to success in this and other most fields.
If you could change one thing about the world (or the world of medicine/science), what would it be?
It would be great to see quality medical care available for everyone…regardless of their ability to pay.
What is the biggest change you've experienced in your field since you were a student?
The advent of cochlear implants as a treatment of choice for treating individuals with severe/profound sensorineural hearing loss. When I was a student, there was very little that either physicians or audiologists could do for an individual with profound sensorineural hearing loss. Today, the outlook for those individuals is much brighter.
What one piece of advice you would give to today's medical students?
Take the time to get involved with research – both basic as well as applied.
What do you see as "the future" of medicine?
I would never presume to predict “the future” of medicine. I would predict that in the field of Otolaryngology, the future will be bright and is sure to include further improvements in cochlear implant technology. Further miniaturization of the technology is certain and improvements in the ability of cochlear implant users to understand speech in difficult listening situations will improve. I also expect that the population of patients considering cochlear implantation will expand. Finally, it also seems possible that future technology might pave the way to make regeneration or repair of the sensory cells in the cochlea a reality.
In what ways are you engaged with the greater Iowa public?
We have many individuals from across the state who participate in our research. I love to go talk about my job and teach students at my daughters’ schools about hearing and do that with some regularity. I also try to be active in the Iowa Speech and Hearing Association (ISHA).