CHCS Perspectives Winter 2014

PERSPECTIVES • WINTER 2014 – Page 21 cation seminars on hearing screening and diagnostic assessment, and writing a user manual on EHDI program implementation. While the fieldwork she did at both Beltone and Bio-logic was exciting, the pressures and disruption of her home life were difficult to contend with because she was spending five or six days a week on planes. Looking to return to working with hearing aids, Dr. Needleman accepted the position as director of audiology for a small startup company called Songbird Hearing that was develop- ing disposable hearing aids—an opportunity that was career defin- ing. While at Songbird, Dr. Needleman set clinical policy, implementing standard operating procedures for professionals, training staff on clinical techniques, and developing training coursework and materials for ongoing instruction. She also supported professional marketing, leading clinical claims development and substantiation, developing device-instruction manuals, and serving as the lead media spokesperson for the com- pany. With the Songbird hearing aid growing conceptually within direct-to-consumer markets, Procter and Gamble invested in the company. As a result, Dr. Needleman was promoted to vice presi- dent of product development, overseeing product research and de- velopment, quality assurance, and regulatory affairs for Songbird, working side-by-side with Procter and Gamble executives. As the economy started to falter, Dr. Needleman decided to seek challenges within a new arena of the audiologic profession and moved to the West Coast to lead the audiology team for Rady Chil- dren’s Hospital San Diego, California. During her time at the hos- pital, she provided day-to-day leadership for the audiology department and cochlear implant team, developing systems to en- sure quality patient-care outcomes and fiscal management. Under Dr. Needleman’s leadership, the audiology team developed into a world-class unit, leading the way with multiple scientific presenta- tions at national and international conferences. She also expanded access to care, grew the team from a staff of 7 to a staff of 20 au- diologists, increased productivity, and enhanced hearing-aid sales and gross revenue. In addition, she created a national annual con- ference called the Sound Wave Symposium for audiologists and medical professionals. As Dr. Needleman joins the NSU team, her career comes full circle to her roots in academia. She is very excited to return to de- veloping the future doctors of audiology, bringing her real-world experiences in the field to the students of tomorrow. Y’shua Yisrael, Au.D., Associate Professor Dr. Y’shua Yisrael’s commitment to the deaf and hard of hear- ing is well established. Accordingly, in an effort to ameliorate fa- milial morbidity, which is often associated with the diagnosis of hearing loss in children, he is an advocate of early hearing detec- tion and intervention. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a master’s in Audiology with a minor in psy- chology from Purdue University. He also studied counseling psy- chology, African languages (Kiswahili), and literature at the University of Wisconsin before earning a doctoral degree in Au- diology from Salus University in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Dr. Yisrael, who possesses broad-based audiology experience that spans three decades, has held faculty appointments at several renowned institutions. These include the University of Memphis, Rochester Institute of Technology-The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, The State University of New York at Fredonia, South- ern University in New Orleans, Louisiana, State University Medical Center, School of Allied Health Professions in New Orleans, and South Carolina State University. These academic appointments have served to facilitate the acquisition of expertise in the areas of didactic and clinical precepting, the provision of direct clinical serv- ices, pediatric and adult rehabilitative intervention with hearing aids, student advisement, research, and community service. He also worked diligently to raise the visibility of the audiology profession in diversified linguistic and cultural settings. Throughout his profession, he has devoted considerable energy in the develop- ing regions seeking to empower women and children. In addition, he recently completed a nine-month assignment in India sponsored by the American Jewish World Service—an organization dedicated to the realization of human rights and ending poverty in the de- veloping world. His interest in helping marginalized communities was ignited subsequent to being selected by the American Speech Language and Hearing Association to participate in a national col- loquium on underserved populations. As the coordinator of a Universal Newborn Hearing screening for Guam—a U.S. territory in the South Pacific—he implemented evidence-based assessment protocols that have been shown to be optimal for pediatric assessment. Additionally, he taught the neona- tal intensive care units staff at Guam Memorial Hospital and the Sagua Managu Birthing Center how to utilize distortion product otoacoustic emissions—an objective test of hearing conducted prior to discharge. In light of the dearth of hearing health care professionals on Guam, Dr. Yisrael trained audiology assistants in protocols used in identification audiometry in the public schools. Another specific accomplishment achieved by Dr. Yisrael was being awarded a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hayes Summer Abroad fellowship to investigate the status of audiology in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. He also was employed by the government of Australia as a pediatric audiologist and subse- quently presented on otoacoustic emissions at the 2006 Western Australia Audiology conference. While on the faculty at the Louisiana State University Medical Center, he was funded to conduct middle-ear physiologic research in Jamaica. The research project sought to determine whether there were clinically significant differences in the static acoustic immittance between a population of Scandinavians on whom the test was stan- dardized, and a homogenous population of Africans in the interior of Jamaica. His findings were presented at the annual convention of the American Speech Language and Hearing Association. Dr. Yisrael’s employment at Onsite Health in Savannah—a com- pany that contracts exclusively with the Veterans Administration— heightened his interest in tinnitus management. Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, affects more than 50 million Americans, and for those with aversive reactions, the consequences are devastating. He also is an advocate of the neurophysiological model of tinnitus management, which states that the hearing mechanism plays a sec- ondary role in tinnitus. He perceives his appointment within the NSU Department of Audiology as a continued opportunity for professional development and welcomes the rigorous demands and challenges that charac- terize pedagogic appointments.