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Faith W. Akin, PhD, CCC-A, is the director of the vestibular laboratory at James H. Quillen VA Medical Center and an associate professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at East Tennessee State University. Her clinical and research interests are vestibular assessment and evaluation. Her research on the assessment of otolith function has been funded by the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service of the Veterans Health Administration.
Randall Benson, MD, is the only fellowship trained behavioral neurologist at DMC. He has been on the faculty at DMC and WSU since 2001 and is an active member of the teaching faculty, instructing medical students and residents in disorders of cognition and the use of neuroimaging in clinical practice and research.
After a neurology residency at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston VA Medical Center (Jamaica Plain), he completed a dual fellowship in cognitive/behavioral neurology and functional neuroimaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the MGH NMR-Center where he pioneered the use of functional MRI (fMRI) for the mapping of language and motor cortex in brain tumor and epilepsy patients. Recruited to the University of Connecticut Health Center in 1997 to direct a new functional imaging program, he teamed with internationally recognized researchers in reading and speech perception and the prestigious Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut, to investigate the neural (brain) basis of speech recognition using fMRI. With the long-term goal of combining new brain mapping techniques such as fMRI with brain stimulation techniques to effect recovery in brain injured patients, Dr. Benson joined the faculty at WSU/DMC in 2001, where he has used fMRI, together with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrical stimulation, to induce recovery of function in language and motor impaired stroke victims. In work funded by both the Dana and Wilson Foundations, Dr. Benson showed that focal TMS can improve language function in aphasia. In a separate study of hemiparetic stroke, Dr. Benson and colleagues at DMC/WSU showed that electrical stimulation of motor cortex can improve hand motor function.
A newer research and clinical interest for Dr. Benson is traumatic brain injury (TBI). Since coming to WSU/DMC, where there is a rich history of research and clinical management of TBI, Dr. Benson has spearheaded the use of new MRI techniques (e.g., DTI, SWI, PWI, MRSI, fMRI) to brain trauma which is often occult to clinical imaging. Dr. Benson and a large interdisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers (BLAST Consortium) are now fully engaged in studying both impact (NIH funded) and non-impact (blast) head injury, seeking to understand the biomechanical mechanisms, treatment and prevention of injuries.
Aditya Bhagwat, PhD, ABPP-CN, is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist currently working in the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC. Dr. Bhagwat completed his undergraduate studies in Psychology at McGill University, his doctoral work in Counseling Psychology at The Ohio State University, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology through the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC and Walter Reed AMC. He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force for seven years before joining the DVBIC, where he is privileged to be able to continue serving military service members who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.
Anthony Cacace, PhD, CCC-A, is professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Otolaryngology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Previous to this appointment, he was full-time academic faculty in the Department of Neurology, The Neurosciences Institute and Advanced Imaging Research Center at Albany Medical College, Albany, New York. He was recently editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Audiology, and is currently chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Tinnitus Association. He was a member of the committee that studied hearing loss and tinnitus in veterans from World War II to the present for the Institute of Medicine, The National Academy of Sciences. He also contributed to the publication, Noise and Military Service: Implications for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus in Veterans, a study mandated by Congress, sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and published in 2005. He co-edited Tinnitus: Pathophysiology and Treatment in 2007, with several other national and international experts, which is published as an ongoing series under the rubric of Progress in Brain Research (Volume 166), and most recently co-edited Controversies in Central Auditory Processing Disorder with Dr. Dennis J. McFarland, The Wadsworth Labs, New York State Health Department. Dr. Cacace has published extensive, peer-reviewed literature in the areas of psychoacoustics, electroacoustics, electrophysiology, hearing loss, tinnitus, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and repetitive transcranial magnetic resonance imaging (rTMS).
David W. Chandler, PhD, CCC-A, serves as the Department of Veterans Affairs deputy chief consultant for rehabilitation services, which oversees and directs the national programs for Audiology and Speech Pathology Service, Blind Rehabilitation Service, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service and Polytrauma, and Recreation Therapy Service. Dr. Chandler joined the VA in April 2007, after serving in the Army for 29 years as an audiologist, preventive medicine, and Army staff officer. He obtained his doctorate at Vanderbilt University and has focused his research efforts in human auditory perception and investigation of auditory blast injuries, including: the Viet Nam Head Injury Study; survivors of the bombings in Oklahoma City and at the US Embassy in Nairobi; and Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. He has served as a faculty member of the Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Residency Training Programs, and as adjunct faculty for numerous universities. He has authored over 25 journal articles, book chapters, and abstracts, and is a member of several technical and advisory committees within the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense.
Fofi Constantinidou, PhD, CCC-SLP, received her doctoral degree in 1995 from the University of Cincinnati in the area of speech-language pathology with concentration in clinical cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology. She joined the faculty in the department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Miami University in 1995 as assistant professor; she was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and to full professor in 2007. In 1998 she created the NeuroCognitive Disorders Laboratory at Miami University which she directed until August 2008. Constantinidou joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Cyprus in 2006, and in 2008 she created the Neurocognitive Research Laboratory at the University of Cyprus.
Her interests center in acquired adult neurological disorders (e.g., brain injury, aging, and stroke) and their effects on intellectual and cognitive abilities, in particular learning, memory, executive systems, and categorization. Dr. Constantinidou has received several grants for her work on the Categorization Program (CP), a hierarchical cognitive rehabilitation program for patients with traumatic brain injury. She publishes her work in top tier journals and routinely presents at national and international conferences. She is currently the ASHA chair on the Joint Committee on Interprofessional Relations between ASHA and Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA). The committee recently completed a report on the assessment of memory disorders.
Kyle C. Dennis, PhD, CCC-A, is an audiologist currently assigned as a rehabilitation planning specialist in the National Audiology and Speech Pathology Program Office for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Dennis received a master's of science degree from Tulane University in 1977 and a PhD from Northwestern University in 1987. He has authored and co-authored numerous publications and papers and is a frequent presenter on a broad range of topics including evidence-based practice, productivity, clinical issues, and coding. Dr. Dennis leads the TBI coding initiatives for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and is a recognized expert on TBI coding. Dr. Dennis's professional memberships include the American Speech and Hearing Association and the American Academy of Audiology. He has served on numerous professional committees including the Health Care Economics Committee of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Coding and Practice Management Committee of the American Academy of Audiology. He received a Presidential Award from the American Academy of Audiology in 2003 for his contributions to the profession, the Distinguished Service Award from Association of VA Audiologists in 2006, and the President's Award from Association of VA Speech-Language Pathologists in 2007.
Kim R. Gottshall, PhD, PT, ATC, is the director of Vestibular Assessment and Rehabilitation at Naval Medical Center San Diego. She holds a bachelor's degree and teaching certification in Health and Physical Education from West Chester State University, an MPT from the Army- Baylor Physical Therapy Program, and an MS in Exercise Science and ATC from San Diego State University. She earned her PhD at University of California School of Medicine. Presently she serves as the practice liason for the APTA Vestibular SIG for the Neurology Section. She also serves as the physical therapy liason on the American Academy of Otolaryngology Equilibrium Committee. Internationally she serves on the Barany Society Vestibular Rehabilitation Practice Committee.
E. Mark Haacke, PhD, specializes in neuroimaging. He is the director of the Imaging Division in the School for Biomedical Engineering at McMaster and of the Magnetic Resonance Research Facility at Wayne State University. Dr. Haacke is a world renowned physicist and has personally trained over 80 students, post-docs, engineers, clinical fellows and research fellows over the last 25 years. He is one of the pioneers in MR angiography, susceptibility weighted imaging, fast imaging and cardiovascular imaging. Dr. Haacke has been funded in both neurovascular and cardiovascular research for the last 20 years, has received funding from industry and federal sources and holds numerous patents for his work. He is considered an international authority on the methodology of magnetic resonance imaging. He has published two books on MRI, one is used as the standard text to teach MRI around the world and has been translated into Chinese. His current interests are on using MRI as a means to image traumatic brain injury. In 2004, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, in Kyoto, Japan for his contributions to pulse sequence design and education.
James W. Hall III, PhD, CCC-A/SLP, received a master's degree in speech pathology from Northwestern University and, in 1979, his PhD in audiology from Baylor College of Medicine under the direction of Dr. James Jerger. Since then, he has held clinical and academic audiology positions at major medical centers. Dr. Hall is now clinical professor and associate chair in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In addition to his administrative duties, he maintains a clinical practice at University of Florida Health Science Center, and serves as a clinical instructor and mentor in the Doctor of Audiology on-site and distance learning programs.
Dr. Hall's main research interests are in the area of auditory neurophysiology, clinical assessment of auditory processing disorders and central auditory nervous system function, newborn hearing screening, and tinnitus and hyperacusis. Dr. Hall lectures internationally on these topics. He is the author of numerous journal articles, monographs, or book chapters, as well as the Handbook of Auditory Evoked Responses and Audiologists' Desk Reference Volumes I and II, the Handbook of Otoacoustic Emissions, and the New Handbook of Auditory Evoked Responses.
James A. Henry, PhD, CCC-A, is a certified audiologist with a doctorate in Behavioral Neuroscience. He works as a VA Research Career Scientist at the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) located at the Portland, Oregon VA Medical Center. He has been at the VA for 22 years, and has conducted tinnitus research for 16 years. His research focuses on the development of standardized protocols for clinical assessment and management of tinnitus, and conducting randomized clinical trials to assess outcomes of different methods of tinnitus intervention.
Anne Hogan, AuD, CCC-A, is the chief of the Audiology and Speech Pathology service at the VA Boston Healthcare System in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her AuD from the Arizona School of Health Sciences in 2007. She began her career with the VA Boston Healthcare System as a clinical audiologist 23 years ago and has been the service chief since 2006. She serves on many committees within her medical center and has taken on many leadership opportunities. In 2007, she became a board certified audiologist and is currently chair of the VISN 1 Audiology Council. Along with managing the busy Audiology and Speech Pathology service at VA Boston, she is also a practicing audiologist with a special interest in geriatrics and audiology rehabilitation.
Robin A. Hurley, MD, FANPA, received her doctorate of Medicine from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1990. She completed her psychiatry residency with a focus tract on neuropsychiatry and neuroimaging research at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. After completing residency, Dr. Hurley remained at Baylor and the Houston VAMC as faculty in psychiatry and radiology for 9 years. In 2003, she transferred to the Salisbury, North Carolina VAMC, and joined the Wake Forest University School of Medicine as faculty in both radiology and psychiatry. Dr. Hurley is a Diplomate of both the American Board of Psychiatry and the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties Certification in Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry.
Dr. Hurley has co-authored well over 50 journal articles and multiple book chapters, Neuranatomical Teaching Charts, and scientific presentations. She is the co-editor of the "Windows To The Brain" section of the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences and "Windows To the Brain" imaging textbook. She has won multiple national awards for her scientific work and teaching, including induction into the Baylor College of Medicine Academy of Distinguished Educators. She is a Fellow of the American Neuropsychiatric Association and chair of their national education committee. Dr. Hurley has maintained a VAMC psychiatric traumatic brain injury teaching service for over 13 years. She is also a co-author of and associate director for education of the VAMC VISN 6 Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), with a focus on Post-Deployment Mental Health. Within the MIRECC, she is co-investigator on several brain injury research studies and principal investigator for a new brain injury rehabilitation program. Dr. Hurley has served on multiple national VHA committees and task forces, and has served as a VAMC acting chief of staff, a deputy chief of staff, and associate chief of staff for mental health. Currently, she is the associate chief of staff for research & education, Salisbury VAMC.
Mary R.T. Kennedy, PhD, CCC, is an associate professor in the Speech-Language-Hearing Science Department at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She has over 25 years of clinical and research experience working with individuals with cognitive and communication disorders as a result of brain injury and has published and presented widely on these and related topics. She is the chair of the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS) committee on that develops practice guidelines on managing cognitive and communication disorders for individuals with brain injury and is currently the president of ANCDS. Her recent research and clinical work is in the use of metacognitive strategies to facilitate academic success in college students with brain injury, and in the implementation of a return-to-college transition program.
Dennis J. McFarland, PhD, received his doctorate in Psychology from the University of Kentucky in 1978. He is currently a research scientist at the Wadsworth Center in the New York State Department of Health. His research interests include development of brain-computer interface technologies and auditory perceptual disorders. He is an author of 79 articles in referred journals and 15 book chapters. Together with Anthony Cacace he has recently edited the book Controversies in Central Auditory Processing Disorder by Plural Publishing (2009).
Paula J. Myers, PhD, CCC-A, is a licensed, certified, and clinically-privileged audiologist and former teacher of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind. She works as chief of the Audiology Section and cochlear implant coordinator at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center/Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center located in Tampa, Florida. She has been employed at the Tampa VA for 22 years. Her research focuses on the development of patient health education programs and materials, standardized protocols for clinical assessment and management of tinnitus, and blast injury and auditory dysfunction. She is an assistant professor for the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at University of South Florida, adjunct professor for the Sign Language Interpreter Training Program at Hillsborough Community College, and chair of VA Southern Region Audiology Professional Standards Board and VA Audiology Patient Education Workgroup.
Carlos G. Tun, MD, is medical director of the Polytrauma Traumatic Brain Injury Program for veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) at the Boston VA Medical Center. He is an assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has published extensively on several topics of rehabilitation medicine. He is actively involved in research and gives presentations with his colleagues from audiology, neuropsychology, physical medicine, and rehabilitation. He has been an invited speaker of the Mass Brain Injury Association, and other organizations, to share his experience on the effects of blast explosions on the brain, hearing, memory function, and musculoskeletal systems.
Tara L. Zaugg, AuD, CCC-A, is a licensed, certified, and clinically-privileged research audiologist employed at the NCRAR. Through her involvement in tinnitus clinical trials over the last seven years at the NCRAR, she has developed considerable expertise in tinnitus assessment and management, and in the training of audiologists to perform tinnitus management.
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