The Clinical Fellowship Year pairs a first-year practitioner with an experienced practitioner to ease the transition between student and independent provider of clinical services.
Theodora Papastratakos, left
When students take on their first professional position after completing their master’s degrees in speech and hearing science with a focus on speech-language pathology, they must also begin what is called a Clinical Fellowship Year, or CFY, required by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to earn the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP). The CFY pairs a first-year practitioner with an experienced practitioner in a mentoring relationship designed to ease the transition between student and independent provider of clinical services.
Theodora Papastratakos completed her master’s degree in 2015 and her CFY during the 2015-2016 school year, her first with Aldrin Elementary School in Schaumburg.
“You dive right in, which is why you have a clinical fellowship supervisor,” she said. “It’s so different from being in graduate school and doing your clinical externships versus managing your own caseload. It’s a big leap.”
She found her own CFY experience positive, but also knew there were things she would have liked to change. During her first several years of practice at Aldrin Elementary, Theo felt she was still learning so much that she could not supervise a clinical fellowship. In the fall of 2021, the department head reached out to her to see if she’d be willing to supervise a new SLP who would be joining the school part time.
“I’d been practicing for seven years, and I think I realized that I do know a lot,” she said. “I was excited to share some of that knowledge with somebody coming into the field.”
She took the training course offered by ASHA and welcomed May 2021 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign SHS graduate Rachel Deichstetter to Aldrin Elementary as her first mentee. Some of Theo’s role involved just being available to Rachel to answer questions, walk her through district policies and procedures, and give feedback on her ideas.
“I would review her goals and the reports that she was writing and help her as needed,” Theo said. “I watched some of her therapy sessions and gave her feedback throughout the year. If she was experiencing something for the first time, I might help a little bit more. Toward the end of the year, she was practicing independently.”
Theo enjoyed assisting with Rachel’s transition from student to professional and working with someone fresh out of graduate school. “It was fun to see her gain more confidence throughout the year,” she said. “Sometimes when you’ve been practicing for a while, you get stuck in what you’re doing. Rachel brought fresh ideas and new ways of doing things.”
Theo will continue working at Aldrin Elementary while Rachel joins another school in the Schaumburg district for 2022-2023. “I’ll remain a resource for her in the future if she has questions or needs to bounce ideas off someone,” she said. She looks forward to her next opportunity to supervise a clinical fellow and mentor another budding speech-language pathologist into the profession.
The significance of an ASHA Fellowship is not lost on Raksha Mudar.
In the summer of 2022, Speech and Hearing Science Associate Professor Raksha Mudar was elected a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Fellowship is one of the highest forms of recognition given by ASHA and is a public declaration of an individual’s outstanding contributions to the discipline of communication sciences and disorders.
The significance of that recognition was not lost on Dr. Mudar.
“I am delighted to receive this honor from the association. To get recognized by the association for these efforts is really personally and professionally fulfilling,” said Mudar, who joined the University of Illinois in 2011. “My journey as a faculty in communication sciences and disorders has been so much fun. I enjoy what I get to do each day, from training the next generation of clinicians and scientists to conducting research examining intriguing questions about the aging brain and neuroplasticity.”
For Dr. Mudar, the ASHA appointment serves as validation for her research agenda, which was inspired by a personal experience.
“When I was an undergraduate student in speech and hearing science (at the University of Mysore in India), a family friend got diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s dementia,” she said. “This person was an eloquent storyteller. To watch his cognitive communication abilities deteriorate quickly was difficult to watch. His family struggled to understand his needs and wishes and got little help from his doctors on how to deal with these challenges. I was surprised to find that speech-language pathologists rarely worked with individuals with Alzheimer’s dementia at that time and this inspired me to pursue research on cognitive-communication issues in aging and neurodegenerative disorders.”
According to Dr. Mudar, an ASHA Fellow is expected to support and promote scientific and clinical leadership, interdisciplinary services, and an inclusive culture committed to supporting the needs of those with communication and swallowing disorders.
ASHA is the national professional association that sets the standard for professional practice in speech-language pathology and audiology and serves as an accrediting body. To Dr. Mudar—who was also the AHS recipient of the Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring award—it represents something more than that.
“(ASHA) offers a great community for members to connect with each other, learn, and build scientific and clinical excellence,” she said. “Furthermore, ASHA’s advocacy in promoting the needs of individuals and families with communication disorders is critical to supporting communication as a basic human right.”
Sylvia Techmanski’s favorite subject in high school was Spanish, but it wasn’t until a spring break trip to Puerto Rico that she realized her love for languages could take her farther than that.
Now a student in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science and in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Illinois, Techmanski is going further. The sophomore, pursuing a dual degree in Speech and Hearing Science and Spanish, is headed to Rio de Janeiro for the summer to study Portuguese.
Techmanski will travel to Brazil as one of four Illinois recipients of the Critical Language Scholarship to speak and learn Portuguese in Brazil. Brazilian Portuguese is deemed critical to the U.S. economy and national defense, as Brazil has the eighth-largest economy in the world.
“This summer, I’ll be in Rio for nine weeks, and I’ll be studying in PUC-Rio (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro) which is the best university there,” Techmanski said. “It’s been rated one of the best universities in Latin America multiple times which is super cool. Plus, the Brazilian spirit is so open and friendly.”
Her goal is to become a speech-language pathologist that works with bilingual clients with language disorders to help them perfect both their heritage language and English. Techmanski specifically wants to help preserve ties with their culture while simultaneously having the linguistic skills necessary to succeed in the U.S. educational institution.
The scholarship is nine weeks long, fully supported by the U.S. Department of State, and allows for Techmanski to receive eight hours of credit toward her degree. She is one of 500 students across the nation who received the Critical Language Scholarship.
Alongside the Critical Language Scholarship, Techmanski also received the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, for which she received $10,000 in tuition and a $5,000 stipend for two semesters to study a less-commonly taught language. She will also be studying abroad in Granada, Spain, during the spring semester of her junior year.
Brady Hughes is a senior advisor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and is the person who first told Techmanski about the opportunity. A large part of his work as an advisor is to help connect students with opportunities all over campus.
“Sylvia’s passion for learning languages and exploring other cultures has been apparent since my first interactions with her, and it’s been a pleasure to see all that she’s accomplished in her time on our campus,” Hughes said. “I am excited for her to return to campus and share what she’s learned in Brazil.”
Techmanski first discovered the internship within one of Hughes’ emails to students, which she read in her favorite study spot at the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center. There, on the third floor, she chose Portuguese as her language for the CLS scholarship.
“Many students who major or minor in Spanish complement their studies by taking Portuguese, and like Sylvia, they often find that the language comes easily to them, the courses are fun, and they receive individualized attention from their instructors,” Hughes said.
So far, Techmanski is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and is in the process of learning Arabic and French.
Her experience abroad will increase her fluency in the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture, thus helping her achieve her goal of evaluating and treating the language of multilingual children, especially those of Brazilian heritage, she said.
“It’s such a big part of what gives me joy in life,” Techmanski said, “That is really inspiring for me to think about my future career working with multilingual children, of course, that speak Spanish and Portuguese, and maybe French or Arabic, but maybe they also speak like Tagalog [the national language of the Philippines]. I could use them as motivation to learn more about their language and how it works so that I can better fit their needs.”
Multilingualism is becoming more important in the United States and the SLP field is always looking for more specialists. Typically, SLPs are most requested in bigger U.S. cities where there are more multilingual communities, she said.
After graduation, Techmanski wants to move to a big city in the U.S. to serve as speech-language pathologist for children of immigrants. After a few years in the field, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in language acquisition and work as a professor or clinic director at a university, she said.
“And as long as I’m following what I love to do, and helping others in that process, then I’m going to get experience,” Techmanski said. “I feel like I’m fulfilling my purpose, and that’s through helping other people communicate and have autonomy.”
Illini 4000, started as a theoretical conversation between two Illinois students in 2007 and has since become a massive annual fundraising drive that has raised more than $1.3 million since the first ride more than 15 years ago.
Personal experiences with cancer spurred a decision by Izzy Perpich, center, to join the Illini 4000. (Photo provided)
When Izzy Perpich committed to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021, they were self-admittedly unenthusiastic about attending. However, in their search for points of interest on campus, they discovered a registered student organization that just happened to sit perfectly at the intersection of two of their passions: healthcare and cycling.
Illini 4000, or I4K, started as a theoretical conversation between two Illinois students in 2007 and has since become a massive annual fundraising drive that has raised more than $1.3 million since the first ride more than 15 years ago. I4K is an entirely student-founded and led non-profit focused on raising money and awareness for cancer research through an annual cross-country bike ride.
“It’s definitely something that hits close to home,” Perpich said, recalling their own family members’ battles with different kinds of cancer. “It looked inspiring, beautiful and I just thought, ‘Wow, I really want to be there. I really want to be a part of this.’”
The ride leaves from New York City on May 27 and ends as the team of 18 students crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on Aug. 10, covering 4,000 miles through 21 states over 11 weeks. Riders sleep at pre-arranged stops at YMCAs, churches, and campsites, eat the same utilitarian meals (oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and lentils or pasta for dinner), and cover 70 miles on average every day. The experience requires discipline and months of training, but the students who participate have good reasons for doing so.
For Perpich, their inspiration to join the ride came from a few places, but their love of cycling began in their hometown of Chicago, riding the lakefront trail and even becoming a cycling instructor as their very first job. Perpich’s personal experiences with cancer also informed their decision to join I4K.
“I’ve definitely been impacted by cancer in my immediate and extended family,” they said. “Being able to do something so big to help people and also fundraise to serve people and make a real difference is something I was like: ‘Yeah I can’t say no to this.’”
Perpich also discussed their passion for uplifting underrepresented voices in healthcare, a passion which led them to studying in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the College of Applied Health Sciences. They shared some of their experiences working on public health projects with resource centers on campus, saying “a lot of it is like the intersection of queer identities, sexual health and making sure all people have a space and a voice, and that goes for any type of healthcare.”
Perpich said their time in public health made them feel satisfied that “fundraising through Illini 4000 is going directly to different beneficiaries that we [I4K] have spoken to firsthand and knowing that their mission is to improve the experiences of people regardless of their identity, orientation, or any other factors like that.”
Being able to do something so big to help people and also fundraise to serve people and make a real difference is something I was like: ‘Yeah I can’t say no to this.’
Izzy Perpich
SHS student
Perpich’s goals to better represent the underprivileged in healthcare were another part of their decision to join I4K, which doesn’t only focus on their yearly ride and fundraising. The group also collects and manages a gallery of stories of people who have or still are battling cancer called The Portraits Project. Members interview cancer patients, survivors, and families of those who have died from cancer and document their stories to be posted on their website where anyone can read them.
“It’s been really moving to hear firsthand some of the experiences,” Perpich said. “Often the people we speak with have so much to share and it can really bring you to tears.”
The training regimen for a 4,000-mile bike ride is as intense as one might expect, starting in the fall semester with weekly running and calisthenics training before cycling officially begins in March. The cyclists ride up to 90 miles in one training session, training in all conditions and terrains. “It was a lot of fun ascending and descending on the massive hills at Kickapoo [State Park]—that’s where we just did training for switching gears and learning how to flutter our breaks so that we could learn how to do that for more hilly areas in the country.”
Long-distance exercise requires both physical and mental fortitude, but Perpich said the close-knit nature of the team makes the long rides manageable.
“It’s really special when you can bond with another person on your team and ride next to people, because when you’re talking it honestly feels like the time just flies by,” they said. “I feel like it’s just more of those human connection conversations that allow for the easiest and best experiences with a long-distance ride.”
Illini 4000 is not only an emotionally intimate experience for its members, but also an inspiring one. When an entirely student-run group can raise as much money as I4K has, it has an immense impact on the participants as well as the recipients, which Perpich reflected on.
“It’s really empowering for us just to know that, as students we can have such a huge impact,” they said. “We have power as students. We are members of society that are capable of making massive change.”
Beginning August 16, 2024, the name of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health (KCH) will officially change to the Department of Health and Kinesiology (HK).
The new name better reflects significant changes in our disciplines, research interests and educational mission. Health and Kinesiology allows for a broader, more inclusive representation of a department that focuses on multiple aspects of health and physical activity in a diverse society. It also honors our legacy as leaders in the field of health and kinesiology, while pointing the way forward to a future that is both dynamic and innovative.
We are excited about the new name and hope you are as well!
Bob Espeseth was an RST faculty member for three decades (Photo provided)
It’s no surprise that a man who was as outgoing as Bob Espeseth dedicated his life to creating opportunities for others to be outdoors.
“When we grew up, we were always doing stuff, always camping a lot, being outdoors,” said Robert Espeseth, one of Bob’s five children with wife Mary Anne. “That was just us. Part of the trips was to get to see the country … we got to grow up seeing a lot of the parks and a lot of the country and different things.
“He was always happy to meet everybody. He went out of his way when he traveled to look up people and stop in and visit, or at the very least call when he was in the area.”
Espeseth, who was a faculty member in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at Illinois from 1973-95, died on Dec. 15, 2023 at the age of 93.
Espeseth grew up in Wisconsin and earned a degree in landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin, all while serving in the ROTC. Espeseth’s ROTC commitment sent him into the Navy, where he was on active duty for three years. He was an ensign in the Navy when he was the films officer for the USS Purdy, a destroyer that traveled around the world to provide support in the Korean War.
“After he got out of the Navy, he went back and got his master’s degree, and then he started working for the Wisconsin parks system,” son Robert said. “He was instrumental in developing and modernizing a lot of the Wisconsin State Parks, the rails to trails.”
Espeseth also worked in parks administration in Michigan before coming to the University of Illinois, where he was a professor of leisure studies. Colleagues remembered him as warm and helpful.
“He was kind and fun-loving. He was very quick to laugh. Most of my memories are I would go for a run in the morning and he and Mary Ann would walk from their house on Healy Street down to Prospect Avenue.”
RST faculty member Kim Shinew
“And they were standing in front of this tree on Healy one day. And just something about it made me stop, which was unusual. When I run, I usually don’t stop. I stopped, and he said, ‘Do you know what kind of tree this is? And I said, ‘I have no idea, Bob. And he said, ‘It’s a ginkgo tree. They lose their leaves in one day.’ And he said, ‘Long after I’m not around, when you go by this tree, you think of me. And I always have. I always just thought of him when I ever go by that tree.”
In addition to his academic endeavors, Espeseth volunteered for more than 45 years for the Champaign County Forest Preserve District, first as an elected official and later as a foundation board member. His volunteer work and philanthropic endeavors played a significant role in establishing and caring for nearly 4,000 acres of preserves, the Museum of the Grand Prairie, and the Kickapoo Rail Trail.
“He knew the important role that public parks and places like forest preserves, the role that they play in overall life satisfaction and quality of life and places of exercise,” Shinew said. “I know that he really valued and appreciated the outdoors. He was an advocate for that in communities.”
“When I came and Bill McKinney was the (RST) department head, Bill’s area was public parks and recreation. Bob played a big role in that.”
Even now, Shinew said, the connection between landscape architecture and community planning and engagement—two other significant RST industry fields—is significant, a testament to Espeseth’s pioneering work.
Espeseth was also, not surprisingly, an advocate for environmental causes and helped to launch the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, which support coastal, marine and Great Lakes communities through research, extension and education. The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, one of 34 Sea Grants in the United States, is focused on the southern Lake Michigan region—104 miles of heavily urbanized and industrialized shoreline in Illinois and Indiana. Espeseth was at the helm of IISG from 1982 through 1994.
But family and greenspace were really Espeseth’s loves. He was part of the National Parks and Recreation Association, and thanks to that, he took his family on many trips.
“We stopped at every state park and national park in the country,” Robert said. “Well, he would pose us, all of us—my brothers and I—in front of the sign to the park, the entrance to the park to take a picture of the entrance. Part of it was he wanted this file of information, but then he also could use it as family pictures. We used to joke that our father has the best collection of park entrances and bathrooms, because he’d always shoot the restroom facilities, how they were designed, how they were landscaped with natural stone or other things.
“So we’re posed in front of stuff, whether it was in Yosemite, whether it was Yellowstone, whether it was in Grand Teton, whether it was in Craters of the Moon Park, you name it. We used to joke he has the most amazing collection of bathroom pictures in the United States.
Laura Mattie joined the College of Applied Health Sciences in 2015. She leads the Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab, or “DND” Lab.
Photo by caption
How would you describe your primary research interests?
My primary research interest is learning how young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities develop early social and communication skills to inform parent-implemented early language interventions.
Why did you decide to apply to work at Illinois?
I applied to Illinois because it was one of the only job postings that targeted expertise in children with disabilities and family well-being, which signified that my work was already valued.
What are you working on right now?
I have 4 main projects right now:
The Power of the Point Project focuses on the predictors of early language development in toddlers with Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome.
ASD Screening Tools in Down Syndrome is a large-scale survey of caregivers of individuals 6-18 years old that aims to determine how to best use autism screening tools for this population.
The Speech Accessibility Project aims to make voice recognition technology useful for individuals who may have diverse speech patterns and disabilities, including people with Down syndrome.
A Foundational Study of Adaptive Behaviors in Individuals with Down Syndrome is a survey of caregivers to learn about the practical, conceptual, and social skills used in everyday life by their children with Down syndrome who are between birth to 22 years old.
What’s a fun fact you’d like to share about yourself?
I am a twin mom to 15-month-old girls, so much of my free time is chasing after them! When I do have some down time, I enjoy rewatching TV shows like “The Office” and “Parks & Recreation,” reading, and snuggling with our dogs.
John O’Neill is credited with playing “a major role in the transformation of Speech and Hearing Science” at Illinois (Illinois archives)
The Department of Speech and Hearing Science’s history of cultivating a spirit of leadership through mentoring and service to the profession owes much to John J. O’Neill.
O’Neill interviewed to chair the Division of Speech and Hearing Science in the Department of Speech at the 1958 American Speech and Hearing Association convention in New York. Already known for his expertise in clinical psychology and rehabilitative audiology, O’Neill left Ohio State University for Illinois in 1959, where, as the new division chair, he instilled the expectation that faculty and students would match his dedication to service. Upon his hiring, O’Neill was charged with further integrating the speech and audiology areas, developing the graduate program, obtaining grants and centralizing the department under one roof. He tackled all this as he widened the department’s contributions to speech and hearing programs across Illinois and beyond. Department faculty, graduate students and undergraduates contributed to training, clinical work and the efforts of professional associations at the local, state and national levels.
In his obituary, published by the News-Gazette on July 5, 2009, O’Neill was described as having “played a major role in the transformation of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois to its current status as the nationally ranked Department of Speech and Hearing Science and served as the first head of the department from 1973 to 1979.” O’Neill published more than 80 journal articles and technical reports and was the author or co-author of four textbooks. Although he retired in 1991, O’Neill remained active in SHS, serving for years as the department’s format checker for theses and dissertations.
In a 2010 tribute at the Annual John J. O’Neill Lecture, Tanya Gallagher, a former dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences and an alumna of SHS, called O’Neill a “highly respected researcher whose landmark work advanced the field of aural rehabilitation, a skilled administrator who built one of the leading speech and hearing science programs in the nation and helped our national association take its place as one of the major scientific and professional organizations.”
Gallagher—who received her master’s degree and Ph.D. from SHS, said, “Dr. O’Neill had attracted some of the brightest thinkers of our field to this program, and the intellectual vitality within the small white house that housed the program then [the old Lorado Taft house] was palpable and energizing. It was the place to be, where it was happening, and we knew it even then.”
Another SHS alumna, Judith LeDuc, had a similar feeling about O’Neill.
“I first met John O’Neill when I came to interview him about the Speech Science Program at Illinois. I walked into his office, and there he was, with his feet resting on his desk. I thought, ‘My kind of guy!’”
LeDuc, who got her master’s degree in 1971, went on to work as a speech-language pathologist at the University of Illinois Medical Center and developed both outpatient and inpatient hospital-based pediatric programs, as well as a private practice.
“I was interested in child language, and he assured me that the faculty at Illinois brought a wealth of knowledge and research to the program,” said LeDuc, who has also been an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, Rush Medical Center and DePaul University. “He was passionate about the field, dedicated to serving, and somehow was always able to hold the department together, as faculty and students paraded through.”
John Deck, who got his master’s and Ph.D. from Illinois, credited O’Neill for his guidance and direction and said O’Neill encouraged him to take a job as a speech pathologist at the Danville VA Medical Center in Illinois. Through the years at Danville, more than 500 graduate and doctoral students from the division (and later, department) of SHS gained clinical experience. O’Neill was Deck’s Ph.D. advisor, and, as Deck said, “We would discuss important legislation affecting funding for the profession. Conversations Dr. O’Neill and I had about legislation struck close to home … During our discussions, I discovered that no one among the Big Ten schools in speech and hearing did more to help create traineeships for graduate students than John J. O’Neill. So many of us have benefited from his efforts and his legacy.”
O’Neill and Deck, who later worked at Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, worked to secure traineeships with stipends for speech-language-pathology and audiology students.
O’Neill was also a pioneer in forming the Illinois Speech and Hearing Association in February 1960, and he was a co-founder in 1966 and past president of the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology, which helped establish the department’s national reputation in that area. In 1969, he served as president of ASHA. He was a charter member of the Council on Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders, a member of numerous ASHA committees and boards, and ultimately a recipient of ASHA’s Honors of the Association in 1979.
O’Neill’s activity with these associations transferred to his students and colleagues as well. LeDuc, for example, said O’Neill “encouraged us to attend Illinois Speech and Hearing Association meetings, as well as ASHA annual meetings. It was soon after graduate school that I began to serve on ASHA’s legislative council, and ISHA’s program and local arrangements committees. My work on ASHA’s boards and councils continued for more than 40 years. For most of my career, I served the underserved. It was that O’Neill voice in my head.”
The SHS faculty today continue in that spirit. Faculty serve on committees within ASHA, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation and the Acoustical Society of America. They are officers in the Eastern Illinois Speech-Language Hearing Association and the Illini Chapter of the Illinois Association of the Deaf, and they serve on Advisory Boards of the Illinois State Board of Education, the American Tinnitus Association and the National Down Syndrome Society, among others.
“As we celebrate the department’s history and the contributions of its pioneering faculty, we also affirm our commitment to giving back to the community, serving the professions, and honoring the legacy of those who came before us,” said Department Head Pamela Hadley.
Audiology wasn’t initially Graves’ field of choice—she graduated from University of Illinois Springfield in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology
Third-year audiology doctoral student Kaley Graves is missing the first week of classes this fall, but she has a great excuse.
Thanks to her sterling accomplishments as a budding audiologist, she’s on an all-expenses-paid trip to visit one of the premier hearing aid manufacturers in the world: Oticon’s headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“I had to reread that email six times to make sure it said ‘Denmark’ and not ‘Denver, Colorado,’ or something,” Graves said. It’ll be her first time out of the United States.
Earlier this year, Graves was selected as one of six recipients of the American Academy of Audiology Foundation’s Empowering Student Scholarship, sponsored by Oticon and awarded to students who show “exceptional promise” as future clinical audiologists.
“I have hearing aids in both ears, so I’ve been the patient my entire life,” Graves said. “Now I’m on the other side of the booth and can be the clinician, which I think is so fun.”
Graves grew up in Monticello, Ill., a half-hour drive from the University of Illinois campus. Audiology wasn’t initially her field of choice—she graduated from University of Illinois Springfield in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
That career path didn’t fit, but Graves found her way into intriguing research projects that focused on hearing and visual cues. One of her undergraduate mentors encouraged her to apply for a behavioral neuroscience position at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, also in Springfield, where she studied the development of tinnitus in lab rats.
Graves went on to perform hearing research for a decade, but she craved more human connection on the job. A suggestion from her own doctor set Graves on her current course.
“I was admittedly kind of a pain in the butt to my current audiologist about all the things that she was constantly doing to my hearing aids and all of the things that she would do on a daily basis with her patients,” Graves said.
“And she eventually was like: ‘You should probably just get into this field. You’ve already got the hearing background, go deal with people—it’s more fun.” Graves’ mother was especially encouraging of her daughter’s new career path. When her parents first discovered their child had hearing loss, “it was terrifying,” Graves said.
“[My mom] said for patients, especially families that have young kids who are finding out their child has a hearing loss, it’s going to be huge for them to see their doctor has a hearing loss and can be successful in life.”
Today, Graves keeps busy as president of the Student Academy of Audiology chapter at Illinois. The registered student organization doubles as a networking site for SHS students and an outreach arm for the department.
A few events they’ve taken on: Hearing safety stand-ups at the Urbana’s Market at the Square, free hearing screenings in the SHS building, and recently, cerumen (earwax) removals for the ClarkLindsey Village retirement community.
Especially for older adults, earwax buildups can be a primary cause of muffled hearing, Graves said. Graves and another member of her graduate cohort cleared residents’ ears while a handful of first-year students in the audiology program cleaned their hearing aids.
“Being able to do a minimal amount of work over two hours to improve their quality of life was huge,” Graves said. “So many people left that room super happy.”
Her audiology work extends to Illinois’ student population as well. Graves has booked a hearing safety presentation in the fall for the student bandmates of the Marching Illini.
“The first thing that I’m really going to try and drive home to them is to please wear ear plugs when you’re out and constantly practicing,” Graves said. “We were taught first year what the acceptable levels of noise exposure are over X amount of time. If they’re out practicing for four hours and it’s about 90 decibels, they need to do something to mitigate the effects of those loud noises.”
For now, though, Graves is preparing her Denmark itinerary: visiting Tivoli Gardens, one of the world’s oldest amusement parks, and seeing the Danish Crown Jewels. “I’m super excited to go be a tourist,” she said.
Of course, she’s ready for her Oticon visit. “They do a lot of innovation, they do a lot of workshops, they do a lot of Ph.D. student type-things,” Graves said. “I am just really, really fascinated by what I’m going to see behind the scenes at their research center.”
The study analyzed cognitive performance for groups of older adults (ages 70 to 84) with untreated hearing loss
A new study published in the medical journal The Lancet found that hearing aids might slow cognitive decline for at-risk older adults with hearing loss.
Sadie Braun, audiologist and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, said she’ll incorporate these findings into her counseling with patients.
“For people who have any sort of high risk for cognitive decline such as dementia (or) Alzheimer’s, this study tells us that those individuals should get hearing aids as soon as they need them,” Braun said. “The average person waits 5 to 7 years or more to get hearing aids once they know they have a hearing loss.”
The study, co-led by Dr. Frank Lin of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, analyzed cognitive performance for groups of older adults (ages 70 to 84) with untreated hearing loss.
Participants were randomly assigned to either the control group that received counseling on disease prevention, or to the intervention group, which received regular audiology treatment and hearing aids.
Researchers followed up with participants every six months for three years. For participants at lower risk of cognitive decline, hearing aid interventions showed no significant effect on cognitive function. But for participants with high risk for dementia, cognitive decline slowed by 48 percent over the three-year period.
“That’s a pretty amazing statistic to me,” Braun said. “We’ve known there was a correlation between hearing loss and cognitive decline, but there were a lot of unknowns regarding the exact nature of that correlation as well as whether hearing aids or other treatments could have a positive impact.”
The connection between hearing loss and dementia is well-documented, but the “why” is still up for research inquiry, Braun said. Regardless, the finding adds to the growing list of reasons for adults to check their hearing sooner rather than later.
Long-term speech understanding can improve the earlier a patient uses hearing aids, Braun said.
“Cognitive health is something that people really care about,” Braun said. “I think this is going to cause more people to be more concerned about a mild or moderate hearing loss.”
For at-risk adults and anyone interested in checking their hearing, Braun recommends a visit to an audiologist.
The Audiology and Speech Language Pathology Clinic at 2001 S. Oak Street in Champaign is open to all patients, regardless of affiliation to the University of Illinois and accepts some insurance plans. It is operated by the College of Applied Health Sciences’ Department of Speech and Hearing Science.
New patients are required to schedule an appointment by calling 217-333-2205 or emailing shsclinic@illinois.edu.
