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Members in the News

  • Jace Wolfe, Ph.D., CCC-A, Senior Vice President of Innovation at the Oberkotter Foundation, has been awarded the 2025 Marion Downs Award for Excellence in Pediatric Audiology by the American Academy of Audiology. 

  • Dr. Cedric Von Pritchett, M.D., MPH, has been selected to serve on the Oberkotter Foundation Board of Trustees. Dr. Pritchett's experience adds to the Foundation's leadership as they shepherd in a new era of pediatric hearing healthcare.

  • Dr. Michael Hoa recently becoming a full professor at Georgetown University Medical School. In addition to being Chair of the Cochlear Implant Program at MedStar Georgetown, he also works with the Veterans Administration and is a surgeon-scientist in the intramural research program at the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Hoa is the Chair of the ACI Alliance Research Committee and is an active State Champion for advocacy.

  • Daniel Lee MD, director, Pediatric Otology and Neurotology, is at the forefront of groundbreaking work to improve Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI) technology, a device designed to help individuals with profound hearing loss who are unable to benefit from cochlear implants. Read more

  • Matthew L. Bush MD PhD, MBA was recently promoted to Professor and Chair Department of Otolaryngology; University of Kentucky Medical Center. Dr. Bush also serves on the Board of Directors for ACI Alliance. 

  • Hearts for Hearing CEO and co-founder, Joanna T. Smith, is stepping down from her role after a 47-year career serving individuals with communication needs and helping babies and children born deaf learn to listen and talk. Smith, a Speech-Language Pathologist, co-founded Hearts for Hearing in 2003 and has served as the CEO for the organization since 2011. The organization is one of the leading hearing health care centers for children and adults in the United States. 

  • Dr. Micheal Hoa is starting a new position as Professor at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Dr. Hoa serves as the medical director of the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Cochlear Implant Program which provides comprehensive cochlear implant services to both pediatric and adult populations. He also serves as the Chair of the Research Committee for ACI Alliance.
  • Sandra Prentiss, PhD, CCC-A was recognized by The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) for her achievements, leadership and dedication at the 2023 ASHA Convention, November 16-18 in Boston. (Nov 2023)

  • Dr. Teddy McRackan and MUSC TeamGive Young Ukraine War Refugee The Gift Of Sound. Dr. Teddy McRackan, a surgeon and cochlear implant specialist and his team at the Medical University of South Carolina confirmed the girl was deaf in her left ear, but they saw a glimmer of hope. "We saw that she was responding at very, very loud levels to noise in that right ear," McRacken said. (May 2023)

  • Karl R. White PhD, has been selected to receive the Thomas F. Campbell Callier Prize in Communication Disorders. He is a professor of psychology at Utah State University and the founding director of the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management. Dr. White has been at the forefront of research, training and advocacy related to early hearing detection and intervention for nearly 40 years. In 2019, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from ACI Alliance. (Apr 2022)

  • Ted McRackan, MD, MSCR won this year’s Mosher Award from the Triological Society. His thesis was on the development and implementation of the Cochlear Implant Quality of Life Functional Staging System. (Feb 2022)

  • Kevin Brown MD, PhD; Margaret Dillon AuD; Lisa Park AuD, recently conducted a clinical trial on unilateral hearing loss. Children with unilateral sensory hearing loss (UHL) struggle to understand speech in noise and locate the origin of sound and have reduced quality of hearing. This clinical trial will determine the benefits of cochlear implantation in children with UHL.

  • Harold C. Pillsbury, MD, FACS, Thomas J. Dark Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, will step down as chair of the department, a position he has held since 2001. (June 2021)

  • Konstantina M. Stankovic MD, PhD, FACS accepts new position at Stanford as the Bertarelli Foundation Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. She has also moved her lab to Stanford; Stankovic Lab: Molecular Neurotology and Biotechnology Laboratory. Her team's current research projects are focused on addressing major unmet medical needs in four distinct areas: sensorineural hearing loss, vestibular schwannoma, optical imaging of the inner ear, and devices for inner ear stimulation and monitoring. Dr. Stankovic gave the 2021 John Niparko Memorial Lecture: Degeneration and Regeneration of the Inner Ear. (June 2021)

  • Advocate Valerie James Abbott authored Padapillo, which follows the journey of a young family as they discover and come to terms with their child’s unforeseen, mysterious hearing loss. Valerie is an active parent-advocate and champion for early hearing detection and intervention and parent-to-parent support organizations in Virginia. (June 2021)

  • Jacob Hunter MD and Anthony Tolisano MD publish guidance to further aid hearing health and other professionals in when to refer for a CI evaluation. When to Refer a Hearing-Impaired Patient for a Cochlear Implant Evaluation

  • Dr. Bruce Gantz, How Iowa Became a Leader in Cochlear Implants features Founder's Board Member Dr. Bruce Gantz. The University of Iowa's pioneering work with cochlear implants has transformed the lives of generations of patients who are deaf and have hearing loss. ACI Alliance Founding Board Member Bruce Gantz led that development and is now leading on use of robotics for CI surgery.

  • Jannine Larky, was recently published in the online version of Audiology Today for her human interest article. ONLINE FEATURE | Deaf Firefighter Perseveres with Dedication Amid 2020 Challenges.

  • Victoria Carr-Brendel The Healthcare Technology Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Women Leaders in Medical Devices of 2021. Coming in at number 8 is Victoria Carr-Brendel. She is the Group Vice President of Cochlear Implants and President of Advanced Bionics at Sonova. Carr-Brendel brings over 24 years of medical device development experience to her current role, where she is responsible for defining and developing new products that drive significant growth and technological development. Read more here.

  • Nancy M. Young MD, Lillian Wells Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Northwestern and Medical Director of Audiology and Cochlear Implant Programs at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, has been selected to join the American Otological Society (AOS) Council. AOS was founded in 1868 and is the second oldest medical society in the US. Dr. Young was an early supporter of ACI Alliance, serving on the Founding Board and as an Executive Committee Member of the Board of Directors. (7/7/2020)

  • David Haynes MD, Rene Gifford PhD, George Wanna MD and Alejandro Rivas MD published an important new resource for the field--Cochlear Implants: From Principles to Practice. The book has five sections: Aspects of hearing loss, assessment of cochlear implant candidacy, cochlear implant/surgical procedures, results and outcomes of cochlear implantation, and current concepts and future technology. Dr. Haynes served on the ACI Alliance Board of Directors. Drs. Haynes, Gifford and Rivas were the Scientific Chairs for the successful CI2017 Pediatric Symposium held in Nashville.(7/7/2020)

  • Meredith Holcomb AuD and Molly Smeal AuD authored “Pediatric Cochlear Implantation: Who is a Candidate in 2020” for the July issue of The Hearing Journal. The audience for the article is the non-CI hearing health professional who may not be familiar with recent expansions in pediatric CI candidacy criteria or the extent to which children considered “off label” may benefit from CIs. Dr. Holcomb is the Chair of the ACI Alliance Board of Directors. (7/7/2020)

  • Bruce Sloane, author of the ACI Alliance Blog “An Octogenarian’s CI Journey” available here, has published his blog on Amazon. We are pleased to have gotten Bruce on his journey to share his experiences as a new (80 years plus) CI recipient. (3/19/2019)
  • Lee Rech J.D., parent member and an ACI Alliance TX State Champion, was named Interim Executive Director of ALL EARS!, the only Auditory-Verbal Center and pre-school in the greater Houston area. The program promotes spoken language and literacy for deaf and hard of hearing children in mainstream pre-school settings. (3/19/2019)
  • Nancy Young M.D., Head of the Section of Otology/Neurotology and Medical Director of Audiology and Cochlear Implant Programs at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, is leading a multicenter clinical trial on the safety and efficacy of CI in infants. The study will open in 2019 and has the potential to expand FDA labeling to children as young as 7 months of age. Read it here. (3/19/2019)
The mission of the American Cochlear Implant (ACI) Alliance is to advance access to the gift of hearing provided by cochlear implantation through research, advocacy and awareness.