PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Hearing-related disorders have a profound impact on the individuals’ social-emotional-cognitive well-being and
overall quality of life across the lifespan. Audiologists are health care professionals that are a part of the
biomedical workforce who provide patient-centric care related to screening, assessing, and treating individuals
with hearing and other related impairments, with the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) being the entry-level professional
degree for an audiologist. AuD programs focus on training next-generation audiologists in clinical education
focused on evidence-based approaches to hearing healthcare. Yet, there is a need to train clinicians as scientists
to better understand the mechanistic bases of listening in complex environments and drive the next generation
of interventional and therapeutic approaches. TRANSLATES: TRanslational Auditory NeuroScience: LAb-based
Training for Empowered Self-efficacy in audiology doctoral students, aims to bridge this gap by providing 25 AuD
students (5 per cohort over 5 years) at the University of Pittsburgh with hands-on, individualized, immersive
research experiences in National Institutes of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)-funded
research labs. TRANSLATES aims to improve research self-efficacy (RSE) - self-belief in the ability to conduct
high-quality research, provide research experiences in NIDCD-funded labs to increase competitiveness in the
biomedical research workforce, and increase the number of underrepresented minorities in AuD and in
biomedical research careers. Participants will engage in a mentor-scaffolded summer research bootcamp
(Accelerated-Behavioral Learning Experience, or ABLE) that includes a self-contained research project,
additional didactic training on key domains contributing to RSE and a two-day symposium that provides
opportunities to interact with role-models such as invited clinician-scientists from diverse backgrounds and
previous cohorts. RSE measures will be collected before and after ABLE and an individual development plan
will be implemented based on the strengths/weaknesses identified by the self-efficacy measures. After
completing ABLE, each student will be matched with a program faculty member, and conduct immersive, hands-
on, research projects in NIDCD-funded research labs over two semesters culminating in a department-wide
poster presentation, along with data dissemination through national and international conferences and peer
reviewed publications. Participants will receive stipend and tuition support to remove barriers to entry into
biomedical research. TRANSLATES participants, program, and mentors will be continuously monitored for
quality using standardized measures and feedback from a Stakeholder Advisory Panel. The long-term objective
of TRANSLATES is to increase the representation of AuDs in the clinician scientist biomedical workforce,
increase the number of underrepresented minorities in a field that is strikingly homogenous despite known
health-related disparities in hearing healthcare, and contribute to the training of personnel who are well-poised
to bring their disciplinary knowledge and skills to multi-disciplinary biomedical research teams.
