Why are you interested in joining the national SAA Board of Directors?
I love audiology, and I want more students to know all about it. I hope to motivate other students like myself to be involved in this field and make more than a career out of it—make it a passion!
What unique traits or skills will you bring to a leadership position with the national SAA?
I am ambitious and am not afraid to be the first person to say, “I’ll do it!” I comport myself with professionalism, and I bring years of work experience in education, the corporate world, and health care to this position. As someone who took several years off between undergrad and grad school, I am fortunate to have learned great workplace communication, adaptability, and problem-solving in my professional life.
If you could change one thing about the profession of audiology, what would it be?
Accessibility and feasibility of care. Just today, I saw a patient who had driven two hours to the clinic, only to find that the problem he was having with his hearing aid was a quick fix that he could have been guided through over the phone. I mean accessibility not only in the sense of proximity to good care, but also in making the process of receiving care smoother and more convenient for patients. While telehealth is of course not ideal for all audiological services, offering help virtually could increase not only the population of people who could receive help, but the quality of follow-up care. Along that same vein of accessibility, I would love to see more diverse provider representation in the field of audiology in terms of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. Being able to help a patient in their own language, for example, or having a provider who is familiar with beliefs, attitudes toward health care, etc. of a particular culture or group of people would diversify access to audiological care.