The Oberkotter Foundation Scientific Council for Childhood Hearing is dedicated to analyzing the science of listening, language, and literacy for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Congenital hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit in children worldwide and can cause significant challenges in early childhood development. The Council aims to address these challenges through multidisciplinary collaboration rooted in scientific inquiry.
Interventions for children who are deaf or hard of hearing remain inconsistent and challenging to navigate. As a result, many families struggle to find the support they need during a critical window of development, potentially resulting in delayed language acquisition, academic struggles, and limited opportunities later in life. Addressing these challenges requires a unified, evidence-based approach to ensure that every child has access to timely pediatric audiology and early intervention services.
The value of evidence-based research in interventions for childhood hearing loss cannot be overstated.
Science provides the foundation upon which effective, equitable solutions are built.
The Council’s rigorous analysis ensures that every insight we uncover is grounded in evidence and guided by collaboration.
The Scientific Council unites top experts across a wide breadth of disciplines, including audiology, medicine, neuroscience, speech pathology, literacy, deaf education, and public health.*
Professor, Pediatric Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery; Director, Children's Communication Center, University of California, San Francisco
Associate Professor, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Melbourne
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Audiology, University of Akron
Chief of Audiology and Research, Hearts for Hearing
Professor of Auditory and Systems Neuroscience, Hannover Medical School
Vice President of Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Professor, Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Florida
Professor, Department of Biostatistics, University of Iowa
Associate Research Professor, Center for Imaging Science and Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics; Co- Director, TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, University of Chicago
Associate Professor, Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa
Lillian S. Wells Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine; Head, Section of Otology and Neurotology, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Senior Vice President Innovation, Oberkotter Foundation
Vice President Programs, Oberkotter Foundation
*Affiliations are for identification purposes only