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Professional Development through Distance Education

  FIRST YEARS > Faculty
vertical line divider FIRST YEARS is a collaborative effort with many partners. The individuals listed in this section are the key players -- your instructors -- all internationally-known experts in fields such as speech acoustics, anatomy and physiology of the auditory system, audiological management, speech development and production, and hearing assistive technologies (e.g. hearing aids, cochlear implants, FM systems).

FIRST YEARS Faculty
Sandra Aldrich Sandra Petitt Aldrich, M.S.
Educational Consultant
Richmond, Virginia

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 1. Working with Families and Teams 

Sandra Aldrich is an educational consultant whose primary interest is professional development.  As a former specialist at the Virginia Department of Education, she facilitated projects involving licensure for special education teachers and speech-language pathologists, initiated National Board Certification, and assisted in the development of the Virginia State Improvement Grant for Special Education.  Ms. Aldrich is a former administrator of programs for hearing impaired and autistic, a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, and a teacher of gifted and academically talented.  She currently chairs the Financial Aid Awards Program for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Carolyn Brown Carolyn Brown, M.S., CCC-A / SLP
Carolina Children's Communicative Disorders Program,
University of North Carolina Hospitals, Department of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 2. Speech Acoustics 

Since 1993, Carolyn Brown has served as Program Director for the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Team and the Carolina Children’s Communicative Disorders Program (CCCDP) at the North Carolina Neurosciences Hospital, and is an Assistant Professor in the UNC Department of Otolaryngology / Head & Neck Surgery.  Trained as both an Audiologist and Speech/Language Pathologist with over 20 years experience working with cochlear implants, she has been instrumental in building a model state-wide network of clinical and teaching professionals prepared to work with children who are developing spoken language with cochlear implants.

Laurie Cochenour Laurie Cochenour, M.Ed., CED
(former) Program Director, FIRST YEARS
(current) E-Learning Policy Coordinator
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 1. Working with Families and Teams 

Laurie obtained a BS in Deaf Education from Texas Tech University and a Masters in Early Intervention from Lewis and Clark College and Infant Hearing Resource in Portland, OR.  Employed by centers and schools in Texas, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina, she has worked as a teacher of the deaf and as an early interventionist for more than 15 years. As an assistant professor in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at UNC - Chapel Hill Laurie was Project Director for FIRST YEARS until summer of 2008.  Laurie is now E-Learning Policy Coordinator for UNC - CH

Elizabeth Cole Elizabeth B. Cole, Ed.D., CCC-A , Cert. A-VT
Program Director, Soundbridge
Wethersfield, CT

Course author/course facilitator: Course 3 - Basic Speech Acoustics

Elizabeth Cole is presently Director of Soundbridge, a statewide (Connecticut) public school program that provides a wide variety of services to approximately 500 children with hearing loss (birth through secondary school) who are learning spoken language through audition.  Prior to coming to Connecticut in 1996, Dr. Cole was a professor at McGill University in Montreal for 16 years, where she taught acoustic phonetics, language, speech, and aural habilitation courses to students in the Auditory-Oral (Re-)Habilitation and Education of Hearing-Impaired Children (AORE) program, as well as audiology and speech-language pathology students.  Most of her published articles, chapters, and books have been focused on how to foster listening and spoken language development in young hearing-impaired children. Her most recent publication is the book Children with Hearing Loss: Developing Listening and Talking, Birth to Six (2007), that she wrote with Carol Flexer.

Karen Erickson Karen Erickson, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Department of Allied Health Sciences
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 6. Emerging Literacy 

Dr. Erickson is a UNC Faculty Engaged Scholar, an associate professor and in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, and the current Director of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  A former classroom teacher of children with multiple disabilities, Dr. Erickson's current research focuses on emergent and conventional literacy assessment and instruction for children with a broad range of developmental disabilities. One of her current projects is Tar Heel Reader, a collection of free, easy-to-read, and ADA-accessible books on a wide range of topics. 

Donald M. Goldberg Donald M. Goldberg,  Ph.D., CCC-SLP/A, FAAA, Cert. AVT
Co-Director, Hearing Implant Program, Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, Ohio

Course facilitator: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey

Donald M. Goldberg is currently the Co-Director of the Hearing Implant Program (HIP) at the Head and Neck Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio.  Formerly an Associate Professor at The College of Wooster (1996-2005)  and the Executive Director of the Helen Beebe Speech and Hearing Center in Easton, Pennsylvania, Goldberg is a teacher, clinician, and researcher. He is the co-author of  Educational Audiology for the Limited Hearing Infant and Preschooler:  An Auditory-Verbal Program. Dr. Goldberg has been a member of the Board of Directors for the A.G. Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and is now President of the A.G. Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language.

Judy Gravel Judith Gravel, Ph.D.,  CCC-A (deceased)
(former) Director, Center for Childhood Communication
William P. Potsic Chair in Pediatric Otolaryngology and Childhood Communication
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
 

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 3. Audiology Interpretation 

Dr. Judith Gravel was Director of the Center for Childhood Communication at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia  and Adjunct Professor of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her primary interests were in behavioral audiologic assessment of infants and young, the effects of otitis media with effusion on child development, and early identification of hearing loss in neonates, infants, and young children. Dr. Gravel participated in numerous projects involved with the development and implementation of universal newborn hearing screening programs, both at the state level (Pennsylvania Newborn Hearing Screening Advisory Board, New York State Department of Health Newborn Hearing Screening Demonstration Project) and national level (NIH-NICHD, NIH-NIDCD, ASHA, American Academy of Pediatrics). Representating ASHA, she chaired the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH), 2003-2005, contributing to the JCIH 2007 Position Statement.

FIRST YEARS mourns her passing.

Melody Harrison Melody Harrison, Ph.D.,CCC-SLP, CED
Associate Professor
Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course facilitator: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey

Dr. Harrison is an associate professor of speech-language pathology in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her clinical and research interests include early intervention with children with hearing loss and working with the families of children with hearing loss. She is a recent recipient of the "Favorite Faculty Award," which is given annually by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Division of Student Affairs.

Deborah Hatton Deborah Hatton, Ph.D.
Project Director, Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers with Visual Impairments
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 1. Working with Families and Teams 

Deborah Hatton, Principal Investigator/Project Director, is a scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, whose research and outreach projects focus on visual impairments and blindness, fragile X syndrome, and autism. She received her Ph.D. in early intervention/special education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. Deborah also has a master's degree in visual disabilities from Florida State University and a bachelor's degree in education from Auburn University. Prior to receiving her Ph.D., she was an early interventionist in the area of visual impairment, a teacher of children with and without disabilities, an administrator of programs for young children with visual impairments and for children who are developing typically, and a consultant in the area of visual impairment and early childhood special education.

Gayla Hutsell Gayla Hutsell, M.A., CCC-A/SLP, Cert. AVT 
Coordinator, Indiana: EHDI

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 5. Normal Aspects of Speech, Language and Auditory Development 

Gayla Hutsell is Indiana’s State Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Coordinator. Previously, she was the Chief Programs Officer at the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, DC. She received her B.S. from Purdue University in 1987 and two M.A. degrees (Audiology-1988 and Speech-Language Pathology-1999) from the University of Tennessee. In December 2003, she became a certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist. Gayla was employed several years with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville as a Supervisor/Instructor in the Child Hearing Services  program at the University  of Tennessee. Her primary responsibilites at UT included the provision of treatment to children with hearing loss and supervision of students in audiology, speech-language pathology and deaf education. She also has she has extensive experience in providing pre-and post-cochlear implant assessments, school consultations, and inservice education. 

Heather Porter Heather Porter, AuD.
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences
Vanderbilt University

Course facilitator: Course 2 - Audiology Interpretation and Hearing Technologies (2009 - present)

Heather Porter, AuD, manages the Pediatric Auditory Development Laboratory, at Vanderbilt University, where she is involved in both behavioral and neurophysiologic research projects.  She was trained in Deaf Education at Michigan State University and worked in the public school system in suburban Washington D.C.  She completed her AuD at Vanderbilt University, with a clinical externship at Boys Town National Research Hospital, and is now prusuing her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt.  The focus of her current research in pediatric audiology includes:  emotion recognition and Theory of Mind development, early-intervention setting comparison, and outcomes for children with minimal hearing loss.

Lyn Robertson Lyn Robertson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department Chair
Department of Education
Denison University, Granville OH

Course author/faciltator: Course 5 - Literacy Development in Young Children with Hearing Loss

Lyn Robertson, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Education at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Coming from the field of reading and cognition, she is interested in literacy development in children who have learned language through the Auditory-Verbal approach. Dr. Robertson is on the Board of  Directors for the A.G. Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language.  Her latest textbook,  recently (2009) published by Plural Publishing, is Literacy and Deafness: Listening and Spoken Language.

Karen Rossi Karen Rossi, M.A., CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd
Executive Director, Omaha Hearing School for Children
Omaha, Nebraska

Course author/facilitator: Course 4 - Normal Aspects of Speech, Language and Auditory Development (2004-2008)
Course contributor: Course 4 - Listening & Spoken Language Development & Intervention  (2009 - present)

Karen Rossi is the Executive Director of the Omaha Hearing School for Children in Omaha, Nebraska, a position she has held since 1985.  In addition, she serves as a Parent-Infant Educator with the school and is also an instructor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s master’s program in special education. Her work has focused on early childhood oral deaf education, with emphasis on the crucial role of families. 

Ms. Rossi authored Learn To Talk Around The Clock: A Professional’s Early Intervention Toolbox (2003) and Parents and Teachers:  Partners in Language Development (1991), both released by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Patricia Roush Patricia A. Roush, AuD.
University of North Carolina Hospitals, Neuroscience Hospital
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 4: Hearing Technologies 

Patricia (Pat) Roush, AuD.,  has been a pediatric audiologist for over 20 years.  A graduate of the University of Iowa, she has worked with infants and young children at Henry Ford Hospital, Children's Hospital of Denver, Children’s Hospital of Boston, and Duke University Medical Center. She is currently a Clinical Instructor in the UNC School of Medicine, Dept. of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. She directs the pediatric audiology program at UNC Hospitals where she specializes in working with newly identified infants and young children and their families.

Holly Teagle Holly Fryauf-Bertschy Teagle, AuD., Director
Carolina Childrens Communicative Disorders Program
University of North Carolina Hospitals, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 4: Hearing Technologies
Course author/facilitator: Course 2 - Audiology Interpretation and Hearing Technologies

Holly FB Teagle, a graduate of the Universities of Arkansas, Iowa and Florida, has been involved with clinical care and research in cochlear implants since 1986.   She currently is an Assistant Professor in the UNC Department of Otolaryngology and is Director of the UNC Carolina Children's Communicative Disorders Program (CCCDP).  In addition to providing clinical services to children with cochlear implants, she is the primary investigator of the collaborative NIH  sponsored study, Childhood Development after Cochlear Implantation, and oversees clinical research within the CCCDP program.

Anne Marie Tharpe, Ph. D. Anne Marie Tharpe, Ph.D., Department Chair
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences
Vanderbilt University

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 3:  Audiology Interpretation
Course author/facilitator: Course 2 - Audiology Interpretation and Hearing Technologies (2004-2008)

Dr. Tharpe's clinical and research interests are in the area of pediatric audiology, specializing in three areas: 1) amplification for children with hearing loss (fitting strategies for infant hearing aids and the use of frequency modulated (FM) technology for children with minimal hearing loss); 2) auditory capabilities of special populations, including children with autism and children with deaf-blindness; and 3) the assessment and documentation of the changing auditory responsiveness of infants during the first year of life. Dr. Tharpe also serves as associate director of education for the National Center for Childhood Deafness and Family Communication within the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center and is a research investigator with the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.

Sherri Vernelson Sherri Vernelson, M.Ed., LSLS Cert. AVEd.
Resource Support Specialist
NC Office of Education Services
Raleigh NC

Course author/facilitator: Course 4 - Listening & Spoken Language Development & Intervention  (2009 - present)

Sherri Vernelson has been teaching children with hearing loss since 1993, with a slight hiatus to have children of her own.  She has been an itinerant and a classroom teacher through the years.  Sherri has worked with children in Auditory Verbal, Auditory-Oral, and Cued Speech approaches.  She received her Master's degree from the John Tracy Clinic/University of San Diego Program and is an LSLS Certified Auditory-Verbal Educator.  Sherri currently works for the NC Office of Education Services as a Resource Support Specialist.

Beth Walker Beth Walker, M.Ed., CED, LSLS Cert AVT 
Private Practice
Dadeville, AL

Course author/facilitator: Course 4 - Listening & Spoken Language Development & Intervention  (2009 - present)

Beth Walker earned a Master's in Deaf Education and has been teaching and learning from deaf children and their parents for 30 years. She has used a variety of approaches including Auditory-Verbal, Oral, Cued Speech, and Total Communication in public school and private settings. She has trained and supervised speech and hearing professionals in public and private settings and taught as a college-level instructor. She has served as educational consultant to numerous programs in the U.S. and abroad. She is currently a practicing Auditory-Verbal therapist and educational consultant in private practice.

Kathryn Wilson Kathryn Wilson, M.A., CCC-SLP, LSLS Cert. AVT
Program Director, FIRST YEARS
Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Course author: Course 1 - Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey - Unit 2. Speech Acoustics
Course author: Course 4 - Listening & Spoken Language Development & Intervention  (2009 - present)

Kathryn Wilson is a Speech-Language Pathologist, Teacher of the Deaf and Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist, with 30 years of experience as an educator, therapist, and AVT consultant in public school, private practice, home-based, and clinical settings.  Kathryn is a former member of the Board of Directors for Auditory-Verbal International, Inc., and served as Co-chair of its Professional Education Committee. She also mentors professionals pursuing certification in Auditory-Verbal Practice. Prior to assuming the directorship of FIRST YEARS, Ms. Wilson was the Director of the Resource Support Program in the Office of Education Servicesfor the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

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