|
 |
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).
 |
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, 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, 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 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, 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, 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. |
 |
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, 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, 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, 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. |
 |
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, 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 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. |
 |
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, 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, 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. |
|
