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Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology
About
ARA's mission is to promote excellence in hearing care through the provision of rehabilitative and habilitative services.
Jani Johnson
President
Dr. Jani Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders and has served on the faculty since 2016. She received her B.S. in Communicative Disorders at Auburn University in 2003. She went on to pursue her Au.D. (2007) and her Ph.D. (2011) from the University of Memphis, where she now teaches Introduction to Hearing Aids, Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation and Aging, Psychosocial Adjustment to Hearing Loss, and Evidence Based Practices in the Provision of Amplification. Dr. Johnson is currently the director of the Hearing Aid Research Laboratory (HARL), which has a history of producing high-quality evidence designed to improve diagnostic and rehabilitative procedures for individuals with hearing loss.
Laura Gaeta
President-Elect
Laura Gaeta, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at California State University, Sacramento. Dr. Gaeta graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Ph.D. in Audiology in 2017 and from the University of Florida with a B.H.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders and a B.A. in Spanish in 2013. Her interests are largely related to aural rehabilitation with older adults and cultural and linguistic diversity in audiology. She has been a member of ARA since graduate school.
Lipika Sarangi
Treasurer
Lipika Sarangi is dedicated to advancing the field of audiology by focusing her research on enhancing hearing aid success for adults in their everyday lives. She is particularly interested in exploring and understanding the individual differences that contribute to the varying levels of success people experience with hearing aids. Lipika aims to pursue an academic career as a tenure-track faculty member, where she can not only continue her research endeavors but also teach and mentor audiology students, sharing her knowledge and expertise to shape the next generation of audiologists.
Katharine Williams
Secretary
Katharine Williams is an adult amplification audiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her areas include educating anyone who will listen, about hearing loss and the benefit of treated hearing loss. She is also interested in educating hospitals and physicians in the value of falls assessments and treatment. Her goal in becoming president is to help make resources available for audiologists and students to better serve their patients with hearing loss. She currently serves on the AAA Health Care Relations Committee.
Laura Ann Wilber
Parliamentarian
Laura Ann Wilber is a professor emerita of audiology and hearing sciences in the department of communication sciences and disorders. One of her primary research interests is noise, and she is currently working with audiology students studying noise and its effects to help them complete their capstone projects. An expert in clinical audiology, Wilber has worked to perfect the equipment used to assess hearing and amplification devices. She has been active in the creation of standards for these devices and for audiometric testing procedures. For over twenty years she has served as a United States representative for the International Standards Organization.
Isabel Martin
Student Representative
Isabel Martin is currently a Graduate Research Assistant at The University of Memphis, where she is actively involved in research that contributes to the field of communicative disorders. Isabel's dedication to her studies and research was recently recognized when she received the prestigious Dr. Ali A. Danesh Award for Academic Excellence at the University of Memphis’ annual MidSouth Conference on Communicative Disorders. She is grateful to Dr. Danesh for generously funding the award and to her professors for their support and recognition of her academic achievements.
ARA Past Presidents
Carole E. Johnson
2023 President
Carole E. Johnson is a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Director of the Hearing Evaluation, Rehabilitation, and Outcomes (HERO) Lab at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She received her PhD from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and her AuD from Salus University in Elkins Park, PA. Her clinical and research expertise is in auditory rehabilitation. She directs the United Way Hearing Aid Bank (UWHAB) specialty clinic in the John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Center in the College of Allied Health Clinics. The UWHAB provides entry-level, advanced digital hearing aids to adults with low incomes. Her current focus of research involves accessibility issues and obstacles to hearing healthcare for unserved and underserved populations. She has published 4 textbooks, 70 peer-reviewed articles, and made over 150 presentations at professional meetings. She attended her first Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology Institute in 1984 when it was held in Watts Bar Dam, Tennessee
Katharine Williams
2022 President
Katharine Williams is an adult amplification audiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her areas include educating anyone who will listen, about hearing loss and the benefit of treated hearing loss. She is also interested in educating hospitals and physicians in the value of falls assessments and treatment. Her goal in becoming president is to help make resources available for audiologists and students to better serve their patients with hearing loss. She currently serves on the AAA Health Care Relations Committee.
Karen Doherty
2021 President
Karen A. Doherty, Ph.D. is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Syracuse University. She is also a member of the Aging Studies Institute and Faculty Affiliate of the Integrated Learning Majors in Neuroscience at Syracuse University. Dr. Doherty’s research focus is on early intervention of age-related hearing loss and investigating ways to maximize hearing aid use considering factors such as cognitive function, hearing handicap, speech perception in noise and hearing aid handling skills.
Kristin Vasil-Dilaj
2020 President
Kristin Dilaj, AuD., Ph.D, is Co-Director and Audiologist at the New England Center for Hearing Rehabilitation, LLC. Her areas of clinical interest and research include cochlear implant programming strategies and outcomes, tools for evaluating functional listening in pediatrics, and pediatric aural (re)habilitation.
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Sherri Smith
2019 President
Sherri L. Smith, Au.D., Ph.D., is Chief of the Audiology and an Associate Professor in the Division of Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine and is the co-Chief of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Duke University Hospital. Dr. Smith also has an appointment as a Research Audiologist at the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Dr. Smith’s research involves developing clinical tools, interventions options, and service delivery processes that can facilitate optimization of patient’s individualized goals.
Sarah Hargus Ferguson
2018 President
Sarah Hargus Ferguson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on talker factors that affect everyday speech understanding in older adults with hearing loss, with a particular emphasis on “clear speech” and its effects on not only intelligibility but also the perception of indexical properties like the talker’s emotional state.
2017 - Claire Bernstein
2016 - Anne Olsen
2015 - Jan Moore
2014 - Linda Thibodeau
2013 - Kathleen Cienkowski
2012 - Carol Cokely
2011 - Joseph J. Montano
2010 - John Greer Clark
2009 - Robert W. Sweetow
2008 - Pat Kricos
2007 - Gabrielle Saunders
2006 - Perry C. Hanavan
2005 - Jill E. Preminger
2004 - Sheila R. Pratt
2003 - Jodell Newman Ryan
2002 - Barbara J. Parker
2001 - David J. Wark
2000 - Mariam A. Henoch
1999 - Alice E. Holmes
1998 - Nancy Tye-Murray
1997 - Sue Ann Erdman
1996 - Jean-Pierre Gagne
1995 - Donald Sims
1994 - Judy E. Abrahamson
1993 - Sharon A. Lesner
1992 - Marilyn E. Demorest
1991 - Pamela N. Jackson
1990 - Robert M. Traynor
1989 - Joseph J. Smaldino
1988 - Jay Lubinski
1987 - Laura A. Wilbur
1986 - Mary Pat Moeller
1985 - Miriam A. Henoch
1984 - John C. Cooper
1983 - Robert M. McLauchlin
1982 - Richard W. Stream
1981 - Dean C. Garstecki
1980 - Julia Davis
1979 - Ethel Mussen
1978 Donald Johnson
1977 - Roger N. Kasten
1976 - Janet Jeffers
1975 - Edward J. Hardick
1974 - Diane S. Castle
1973 - Claude S. Hayes
1972 - David P. Goldstein
1971 - Jerome G. Alpiner
1970 - Freeman E. McConnell
1969 - John J. O'Neil - 1969
1968 - L. Deno Reed
1967 - Herbert J. Oyer
1966 - Herbert J. Oyer
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