Profile

What is your background in audiology?

I currently work as a pediatric audiologist at Texas Hearing Institute (THI) in Houston, TX. We are a non-profit, serving children with hearing loss in the greater Houston area. As part of my role at THI, I provide hearing evaluations, auditory brainstem response (ABR) evaluations, and hearing aid and cochlear implant services. I also currently help manage our ABR and bone conduction programs. Prior to working at THI, I spent a year working at a medical center clinic providing comprehensive audiology services to children and adults. I graduated with my AuD from Vanderbilt University in 2021. I also received my Bachelor of Science in Child Studies and Disability Studies from Vanderbilt in 2017. I started working towards a career in audiology during undergrad, after deciding a career in education was not the right fit for me. I had grown up babysitting a young girl with hearing loss and had always envisioned working with pediatric hearing loss one day. My academic advisor set me up with a few shadowing opportunities with an audiologist and I was hooked!

Why do you volunteer with the Academy?

Volunteering with the Academy has made me a better audiologist. I started volunteering back in grad school, first for local events with TAASLP and the Special Olympics in Tennessee, and later as a member of the SAA Board of Directors. I watched first hand as my advocacy and service made a difference: we were able to enact legislative change abolishing the professional privilege tax for audiologists in Tennessee, I provided important hearing healthcare to athletes competing in Special Olympics events, and I watched my ideas for student programming at the annual AAA conferences come to life. Along with all the skills I picked up, I started forming greater connections with the audiologists who participated in various events. That love of volunteering has followed me into my professional career, again helping me build up skills in advocacy and leadership, and helping me create a wide network of audiology mentors and friends across the country.

What is one thing that you can say volunteering has done for you and your personal success as an audiologist?

Volunteering has truly shaped my success as an audiologist, even helping me land my first job! A student I had met while volunteering reached out to invite me to apply to a job at her clinic. While there, I met and worked with audiologists and mentors that encouraged my passion and enthusiasm. Taking that job led to a host of other opportunities, including presenting at conferences, providing testimony for the importance of hearing healthcare at the state capitol, serving as a peer reviewer for JAAA, and so much more. While it’s easy to feel like I’m too young or inexperienced to have a seat at certain tables, I’ve learned that audiology is too small to believe someone else will do the work. It takes all of us to make lasting change and improve the quality of care provided to all patients.

What’s your favorite rainy-day activity?

I recently took up needlepoint as a way to give my hands something to do outside of scrolling. It has been such a fun way to relax at the end of a busy day! I also love jamming to Taylor Swift or reading a good book.

What’s the most surprising fact you’ve learned recently?

I recently read “Everything is Tuberculosis” by John Green (which I highly recommend for any healthcare provider as we consider how access to quality care shapes the world around us) and learned that TB led to the invention of the cowboy hat when John Stetson moved West to recovery TB and found the quality of headgear to be inadequate.