What are your specific interests in audiology? What are your professional goals related to these interests?

Before entering my AuD program, I was a live sound engineer and spent several years mixing in-ear monitors for artists on concert tours and across NYC performance venues. My primary interests in audiology are signal processing and auditory processing and I believe this is informed by my past work. I’m eager to explore how hearing devices can most optimally transform sound. I wish to pursue research that examines the relationships among signal processing, amplification, hearing, and spatial awareness, especially in complex acoustic environments. This semester, I’ve been fortunate to administer CAPD evaluations for the first time and it’s been a deeply inspiring experience. I hope to continue this work in the future, as well.

Have you previously volunteered with the SAA?

Yes. I’m currently vice president of my local SAA chapter at the CUNY Graduate Center. I’m also on the national SAA programs committee, for which I’m chair of the Virtual Education Series. It’s been such a treat to work with this wonderful team and bring accessible, dynamic programming to AuD students nationwide.

Aside from the SAA, what other relevant volunteer experiences do you have?

From 2013-2018, I was a co-founder/volunteer co-organizer and served on the Board of Directors of Girls Rock! Pittsburgh, a music program for female-identifying youth ages 8-18. As a small team of core organizers, we took a grassroots DIY organization to 501c3 status. I oversaw a team of ~30 additional volunteers and together we offered free or low-cost musical instrument and song writing lessons, as well as multidisciplinary workshop programming focusing on creative self-expression, feminist history, zine making, audio recording, and more. We even broke the youth into bands and had a concert each summer where they performed their original songs! A highlight for me was organizing the Gear Loan program which allowed our youth to borrow high quality musical instruments for low or no cost year-round.

From 2016-2018, I was a patient escort at Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania. Responsibilities included greeting patients seeking reproductive healthcare as they arrived onsite and if needed, walking with them from surrounding city blocks or acting as a physical barrier against anti-choice protestors.