By: Michelle Hsieh Pho, AuD, PhD, Vice President of Audiology 

Greetings from the desk of the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) Vice President of Audiology! As our Texas summer temperatures soar, things also are heating up in our neck of the woods. Our amazing team has continued to push for more opportunities to support audiology through education and advocacy. 

First and foremost, I am humbled and honored to announce that I will be serving a second term as Vice President for 2023-2024. I thank all those who voted for my re-election and reinstatement to our Executive Board. I promise to uphold my pledge to serve our members to the absolute best of my ability. I have had the privilege of working with two wonderful committees—our Audiology Education Committee, led by Drs. Deepa Suneel and Lara Dilollo, and our Audiology Issues Committee, led by Drs. Brandy Murphy and Shelby Callaway. 

We were off to a strong start this year with our TSHA Convention held in Fort Worth this past February. Despite the chaos relating to the ever-persistent global pandemic combined with the additional insult of a surprise ice storm, we pulled off a fantastic in-person event with many audiology sessions covering a wide range of topics, including hearing aids, ethics on newborn hearing screening, and more. In particular, we were ecstatic to host our Day of Audiology that included our featured audiology speaker, Dr. Colleen LePrell, detailing her extensive research on noise-induced hearing loss and culminated in our second annual Audiology Student Research Symposium (so much more exciting in person!). Prize money was awarded to four outstanding graduate students who delivered presentations on their original research. Kudos to all of our student presenters for a job well done! I also am thrilled to announce we hosted a social/fundraising event for the Frank Brister Scholarship in audiology, which officially has received enough funding to become endowed! In addition to our Larry Higdon Award, we now offer two scholarships through TSHA for students in audiology. Our co-chairs are already hard at work with recruitment strategies for next year’s Convention. 

Our Audiology Education Committee also is busy collaborating with our Vice President of Research and Development and its newly formed Webinar Committee to ensure there are educational sessions offered through the new webinar initiatives “Webinar Wednesdays” (free for TSHA members!) and “TSHA Tuesdays” (covering more specific/advanced topics). We kicked off our first audiology webinar with a presentation from Dr. Jill Davis on “Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline” in July. 

Our Audiology Issues Committee continues to provide advocacy and input on various topics related to audiology, including Medicare/Medicaid guidelines and over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. Additionally, our Educational Audiology Task Force (chaired by Tori Gustafson) is still hard at work identifying the needs of educational audiologists in Texas. They attended the educational audiology meeting held at Educational Service Center (ESC) 11 this past April and are reviewing the resources provided by the attendees. 

We also pledged to continue our work with the Vice President of Social and Governmental Policy to support legislative efforts during next year’s session. Unfortunately, our interstate compact bill and our house bill regarding newborn hearing screens did not make it past the Senate in 2021. However, we have already begun our strategic plans to re-introduce these bills for the next legislative session and to provide testimony as needed. 

In summary, the committees under the Vice President of Audiology have continued to build toward the expansion of audiology membership and opportunities in TSHA through education, advocacy, and support for our future professionals through student initiatives and scholarships. I am honored to have been entrusted with leading this charge, and I believe strongly in the ability of our organization to foster the change that is needed in our professions, ultimately, so we may better serve our patients with hearing and balance disorders. 

Cheers to another great year in 2022 for Texas audiology!

More Executive Board News

• The current TSHA budget is available for review upon request.