Audiology Partnership Earns Top National Honor

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The Northeast Ohio Au.D. Consortium (NOAC), a unique doctoral program in audiology that is a partnership among The University of Akron, Kent State University and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, has received the Award for Education Excellence from the Audiology Foundation of America (AFA).

Photo by Bob Christy

Speech pathology and audiology students Laura Weyer and Jessica Seyko help adjust the hearing aid worn by Joe Krause, a client of the Speech and Hearing Clinic at Kent State.

AFA’s highest honor, the award was presented Oct. 12 during the opening session of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) convention.

“The Audiology Foundation of American Excellence award acknowledges the outstanding quality of our joint program—the Northeast Ohio Au.D. Consortium,” Carol Summer, Kent State University speech and hearing clinic director, said. “This award is gratifying because it is an acknowledgement from the audiology profession.”

Audiologists are hearing care specialists who provide evaluation and treatment for individuals with hearing and balance impairments. With 62 students enrolled in the fall 2006 semester, NOAC is the largest residential Au.D. program in the United States, the only collaborative four-year Au.D. program in Ohio, and one of only four collaborative programs in the country.

“The most unique notion to our program is its consortial nature,” John Hawks, Kent State School of Pathology and Audiology professor, said. “We serve as the only residential program in the nation with such an educational base to the Au.D.”

NOAC began in fall 2003 with a class of 39 students. The four-year post-baccalaureate program combines the strength of two nationally recognized audiology programs -- Akron’s and Kent State’s -- as well as The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an internationally recognized healthcare provider that offers a broad range of clinical opportunities to NOAC students.

“We are in a position to offer a very unique and comprehensive program” Hawks said. “We have always felt this was one of the best ways to provide the ultimate in audiological training and it appears others are the beginning to see the logic in this as well.”

Available at only 66 schools in the country, Au.D. programs prepare students to meet the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s new standards mandating the doctoral degree as the entry level for professional audiologists by 2007.

For more information on NOAC, contact Dr. Sharon Lesner at 330-972-6118 or lesner@uakron.edu, or Dr. Lynne Rowan, director of Kent State’s School of Speech Pathology and Audiology, at 330-672-2672 or lrowan@kent.edu.