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Key Note Speaker

Susan Scollie, Ph.D.

Susan Scollie, Ph.D.
Susan Scollie is a clinically trained audiologist and professor of audiology in Western University’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She has served as the Director of the National Centre for Audiology since 2018 where she represents an interdisciplinary group of researchers who are interested in the technologies and evidence that change clinical practices and knowledge in hearing healthcare. Dr. Scollie is an award-winning teacher, having contributed to coursework in many facets of Western’s accredited professional program in audiology, which is among the largest in North America. As a member of the development team for the award-winning DSL hearing aid prescription software, she leads technology transfer to ensure its accurate implementation within the hearing industry globally.


Additional Speakers

Carlos Benitez-Barrera, Ph.D.

Carlos Benitez-Barrera, Ph.D.
Carlos Benitez-Barrera’s is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on the impact of early auditory experiences on behavioral and neural outcomes of children, particularly those with hearing loss. Dr. Benitez-Barrera is also interested in investigating neural correlates of speech-in-noise processing in the pediatric population. His research takes place at the Waisman Center, where he directs the Pediatric Auditory Experience and Brain lab.

Monita Chatterjee, Ph.D.

Monita Chatterjee, Ph.D.
Monita Chatterjee is a Senior Scientist at Boys Town National Research Hospital. She was born and raised in Kolkata, India. Her work focuses on both basic and translational aspects of auditory and speech perception by patients with cochlear implants. She received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India and a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, followed by postdoctoral training in cochlear implants at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Chatterjee is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and led NIH-funded research laboratories at House Ear Institute and at the University of Maryland College Park prior to her current position at Boys Town National Research Hospital. She is also the founder of the BIPOC-CSD network, an affinity space for Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color in the broad area of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Nicole E. Corbin, Au.D., Ph.D.

Nicole E. Corbin, Au.D., Ph.D.
Nicole Corbin is a scientist at Boys Town National Research Hospital where she studies how children integrate sound from both ears to develop skills that are foundational for listening, language and learning. Her primary focus is on understanding how children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing in one ear learn to navigate complex listening environments and optimize auditory input to support their academic, communication, and social-emotional development. Prior to joining Boys Town Hospital, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders and Audiology Faculty in the Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Center at The University of Pittsburgh. She received her Au,D. from Arizona State University in 2013 after completing her clinical externship at Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Corbin received her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2019.​ ​

Tina Cowan

Tiana Cowan, Ph.D.
Tiana Cowan directs the Bilingual Speech Perception and Language Development Laboratory in the Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Dr. Cowan’s research program assesses how individual differences in dimensions of bilingual experience influence speech perception in challenging listening conditions and evaluates how speech perception and language are related in bilingual development.

Kristen Janky, Au.D., Ph.D.

Kristen Janky, Au.D., Ph.D.
Kristen Janky is lead audiologist of Vestibular Services and director of the Vestibular and Balance Laboratory at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Nebraska. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on the prevalence and effects of vestibular loss in children and individuals with Down syndrome.

Lori Leibold, Ph.D.

Lori Leibold, Ph.D.
Lori Leibold is the senior director of the Center for Hearing Research and leads the Human Auditory Development Laboratory at Boys Town National Research Hospital. She received​ her B.S. from McMaster University, M.Sc. in Audiology from the University of Western Ontario and her Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Her background is in audiology and developmental psychoacoustics. Her research is focused on understanding how and when hearing and speech perception develop across infancy and childhood.

Dawna E. Lewis, Ph.D.

Dawna E. Lewis, Ph.D.
Dawna Lewis is a research scientist at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Dr. Lewis collaborates in research addressing issues related to amplification, including remote-microphone systems, and speech understanding in children. Currently, Dr. Lewis is involved in grants addressing listening skills in children who are hard of hearing, clinical tools for managing children with mild hearing loss, and emotion perception and production in children who use cochlear implants.

Ryan W. McCreery, Ph.D.

Ryan W. McCreery, Ph.D.
Ryan McCreery, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Research at Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska. He is also the Director of the Audibility, Perception, and Cognition Laboratory, where his NIH-funded research examines outcomes for children with mild to severe hearing loss who use hearing aids. Ryan was the 2013 recipient of the Early Career Contributions to Research Award from the American Speech Language Hearing Association and received ASHA Fellow in 2020.

Karen Muñoz, Ph.D.

Karen Muñoz, Ph.D.
Karen Muñoz is department head and a professor of audiology in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education at Utah State University. Her research focuses on person-centered care in audiology, factors that influence patient/caregiver engagement in hearing treatment and developing interventions that support health behavior change for parents of young children who use amplification.

Krystal L. Werfel, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Krystal L. Werfel, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Krystal L. Werfel is a research scientist and director of the Oral and Written Language Lab at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Her research focuses on understanding spoken language and literacy acquisition in children who are deaf and hard of hearing and using that knowledge to develop more effective assessment and intervention approaches.

Kathryn Wiseman, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A

Kathryn Wiseman, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A
Kathryn Wiseman is the director of the Child Auditory Technology Lab at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Her research interests include developmental outcomes in children who are deaf or hard of hearing who use hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. Dr. Wiseman received her B.S. from Brown University in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2011. She completed her Au.D./Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Dallas, where her research and clinical work centered on outcomes of children who use cochlear implants. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Boys Town examining clinical outcomes in children with hearing aids. Her current work aims to study clinical outcomes and experimental measures across the continuum of auditory technology to enhance device candidacy, fitting and intervention for ​these children and their families.