Enhancing Diverse Graduate Student Opportunities in Auditory and Vestibular Neuroscience - SUMMARY Hearing loss affects individuals of all ages, ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and represents the largest cohort of individuals with sensory disabilities. The impact of hearing loss is most profound during infancy and schooling years, delaying acquisition of listening and spoken language skills, postponing academic achievements and blunting career trajectories. The implementation of federally- and state-mandated Early Detection of Hearing Impairment program and the clinical provision of digital hearing aids or cochlear implants have become some of the most effective interventions to rehabilitate sensory deficits. Now, more than ever, students with hearing loss using digital hearing aids or cochlear implants are mainstreamed and obtain baccalaureate degrees, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM). Nonetheless, the sum of graduate students with hearing loss remains a minor fraction of the overall graduate student body in STEMM subjects, and far below that in the general population. Graduate trainees with hearing loss still struggle with reduced access to auditory information, and must also manage the debilitating challenges of isolation, ignorance, imposter syndrome and invisibility (the 4Is) in academia. Despite these barriers, there are individuals with hearing loss or other diverse backgrounds that have succeeded in professorial careers in STEMM, particularly in the auditory and vestibular sciences who are motivated to mentor the next generation. Creighton University proposes to recruit graduate trainees with hearing loss or other diverse backgrounds to join an existing biomedical sciences graduate training program (with outstanding institutional commitments) and graduate with doctoral degrees in translational auditory and vestibular neurosciences. These doctorates, as many as 12 over 10 years, and 22 over 15 years, will provide experiential perspectives and insights to develop novel strategies that preserve or restore auditory and vestibular function from wide- ranging etiologies such as congenital, age-related, noise-, drug- or environmental-induced sensory losses. These newly-minted doctorates, mentored by auditory-vestibular neuroscientists and clinicians (some with hearing loss), will influence the next generation of research endeavors to preserve or restore hearing and vestibular function, or other STEMM fields. These outcomes will accelerate the entry of postdoctoral trainees with diverse backgrounds into lifelong careers in STEMM, especially in auditory and vestibular sciences. We will work with the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Hearing Loss Association of America, and research mentoring programs for undergraduates with hearing loss or other diverse backgrounds, to recruit highly-qualified and motivated trainees into this graduate training program. R25 trainees and alumni will share their experiences with vertical and horizontal peer network mentoring programs, with program faculty, and at in-person meetings of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the American Auditory Society.
