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.
