Recent Audiology News

• A poster titled, "The Role of Parental Decision-Making in the EHDI Process" presented by Meghan Powell, Nannette Nicholson, Alan VanBiervliet, Patti Martin, and Rebecca Kelly at the 2010 National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) conference (Chicago, IL) was awarded the "outstanding poster" for the focus on family-centered services.

• The Department hosted its second annual White Coat Ceremony on April 25th. This ceremony was for those Au.D. students who are entering their fourth and final year of doctoral study. The ceremony was held at the Bailey Center on the UALR campus from 2:00-4:00PM.

• On April 21st, Megan Anders, Au.D. student, was awarded 1st Place at the UALR Graduate Student Research Forum, for her presentation titled, "Impact of Noise on Reaction Time using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT)"

• Laura Smith-Olinde participated in the UALR College of Professional Studies Faculty Research Symposium on April 03rd, 2009. Laura presented her research titled, "Spectral Weighting in an Interaural Time Delay Task."

• Sam Atcherson and Pat Highley attended the Gold Standards Summit 2009: Transforming Clinical Education in Audiology on January 12-15, 2009, hosted by the American Academy of Audiology, in Orlando, FL.

• Stacey Mahurin, Beth McWeeny, Greg Robinson and Gail Weddington provided audiological rehabilitation for children and clinical supervision for the M.S. students in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Doctorate students during the 2^nd annual statewide meeting of Arkansas Hands and Voices.  The meeting was hosted by Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, on February 7, 2009, with 30 children in attendance.

• Nannette Nicholson was honored on October 10th with the 2008 Annual Research Award by the Arkansas Speech-Language Hearing Association.

• Frecedes Letcher, one of our second year AuD students, has been selected as a participant in the ASHA Minority Student Leadership Program.  Frecedes attended the ASHA Convention in Boston, MA in mid-November as part of that program. Click here to read more about ASHA's Minority Student Leadership Program.

• The Arkansas Rehabilitation Education Service Cooperative provided health assessments for the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschoolers (HIPPY) Program on October 9, 2008 in Pine Bluff and October 29, 2008 in Redfield, AR.  Gail Weddington and Au.D. students from UAMS provided hearing screening and consultations for approximately 25 low-income and at-risk children.

• Nannette Nicholson and Gail Weddington attended the Conference on Professional Education II: Positioning Audiology for the 21^st Century, hosted by the Audiology Foundation of America in Mesa, AZ on October 3-5, 2008.

• Congratulations to Nannette Nicholson for being recognized with a Faculty Excellence in Research Award by the UALR College of Professional Studies. Nan was honored at a University-wide reception on Friday, May 09th.  Click here to learn more about Nan's selection, and click here to see her videography.
• Gail Weddington is featured in a news story about hearing loss and portable audio/video devices.  Click here to read this interesting story.

• Patti Martin, Nannette Nicholson, Donna Smiley, Elizabeth Raines, and Meghan Powell attended the 2008 Newborn Hearing Screening: Infant and Childhood Hearing Loss in Clinic and in Practice Conference in Cernobbio, Italy to present "Building Local EHDI Capacity Through Collaborative Partnerships" on June 20th, 2008. Alan Vanbiervliet, Patti Martin, and Nannette Nicholson presented "The Infant Hearing Guide: A Tool for Exploring Information" on June 21st, 2008.

• Pat Highley and Gail Weddington are active members of the Arkansas Department of Education Task Force on Education of Teachers of Children with Low Incidence Disabilities.  The task force, which began in 2007, will complete its training module in summer 2009.  The module will be used to educate teachers and paraprofessionals across the state to meet the special education and communication needs of children who have hearing or vision loss, are deaf-blind, or have other low incidence disabilities.

• Pat Highley and Gail Weddington participated in development of a state-wide legislative agenda concerning disability rights.  The Arkansas Disability Policy Consortium was formed March 12, 2008.

• Gail Weddington is the Faculty Liaison for the College of Health Related Professions Student Council at UAMS during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years.

• Hearing screenings were provided by Gail Weddington and the Audiology Doctorate students during the annual Back to School Health Fair held at St. Mark Baptist Church on August 2, 2008, in Little Rock.  Approximately 325 children were screened during the 5^th year of our participation in this city-wide event.

•  Hearing screenings were provided by Gail Weddington, from UAMS, and Linda Crumpler, from the Arkansas School for the Deaf, on June 21, 2008, for the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, in Arkadelphia.

• Hearing screenings were provided for the Silver Sneakers Program on National Senior Health and Fitness Day, May 28, 2008.  The screenings were supervised by Gail Weddington at the Johnny and Sharon Heflin YMCA Family Center in North Little Rock.

• Rebecca Zellmer-Atcherson and Gail Weddington participated in the Healthy Hearing Program during the Arkansas Special Olympics in Searcy on May 23, 2008.  They supervised audiology and speech-language pathology students, who provided hearing screenings for approximately 350 athletes.

• Samuel Atcherson was interviewed by The Examiner in an article titled, “Deaf TU student hopes to help hearing impaired”. Link at: http://www.examiner.com/a-1189612~Deaf_TU_student_hopes_to_help_hearing_impaired.html
• On April 19, 2008, UAMS/UALR’s local National Association of Future Doctors of Audiology (NAFDA) chapter completed its first outreach service project at the Fox Ridge Assisted Living facility in Bryant, AR. AuD students Stephanie Godelfer, Rachel McGehee, and Amber Nettles along with clinical supervisors Samuel Atcherson and Gail Weddington provided hearing screenings, hearing aid checkups, and counseling to the residents. National NAFDA website at: http://www.nafda.org/
• Samuel Atcherson was an honorarium panel moderator at the 2008 Post-Secondary Education Network (PEPNet) conference from April 15-18, 2008 in Columbus, OH for service providers who work with deaf and hard of hearing students with hearing loss. PEPNet website at: http://www.pepnet.org/
• Samuel Atcherson was a sponsored speaker at the joint conference of the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Losses (AMPHL) and the Utah Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (UTRID) on April 12, 2008 at the University of Utah Medical Campus in Salt Lake City, UT. AMPHL website: http://www.amphl.org/

• Pat Highley and Gail Weddington supervised the Au.D. students during hearing screening provided for Children’s International on April 5, 2008.  The event was held at the UALR Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

• Megan Anders, a first-year Au.D. student, has been accepted as a Summer Research Trainee at the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) located at the Portland Oregon Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC). She will complete a 10 to 12-week research traineeship investigating hearing aid outcomes under the supervision of Gabrielle Saunders, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Deputy Director for Education, Outreach, & Dissemination. Click here to read more about this.
• Meghan Powell and Elizabeth Raines, Au.D. students, recently accompanied Nannette Nicholson, Patti Martin, Jan Stroud, and Alan Vanbiervliet to the National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference in New Orleans. The three collaborative presentations included Auditory Neuropathy/Dys-synchrony on February 25th, 2008 (J. Stroud, P. Martin, N. Nicholson, E. Raines); and Touch Choices: Parental Perspectives on Decision Making (N. Nicholson, A. Vanbiervliet, M. Powell, J. Stroud) and The Infant Hearing Guide: A Tool for Early Interventionists on February 26th, 2008 (P. Martin, N. Nicholson, A. Vanbiervliet.

• In March-May 2008 Gail Weddington and students from the Doctor of Audiology program taught an eight-week audiological rehabilitation and consumer education course titled Hearing Is Precious” for LifeQuest of Arkansas in Little Rock.

• On March 4, 2008, Patricia Highley and Gail Weddington provided a guest lecture titled “Children with Special Health Care Needs: The Role of the Audiologist” for special education students at Hendrix College, Conway, AR.

• Sam Atcherson, Greg Robinson and Gail Weddington are participating in the 2008 - 2010 Teaching Scholars Program, offered through the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Office of Educational Development, Little Rock.

•  The first annual statewide meeting of Arkansas Hands and Voices was held on February 2, 2008, and hosted by the UAMS Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology.  Sam Atcherson, Pat Highley, Stacey Mahurin, Beth McWeeny, Greg Robinson and Gail Weddington supervised students who provided audiological rehabilitation for 40 children and teenagers in attendance.

• On January 30, 2008, Pat Highley and Gail Weddington made a presentation to ICAN in Little Rock, informing the assembled rehabilitation professionals about the assistive listening devices and services available at the Technology Access Center in the UAMS/UALR Speech and Hearing Clinic.