American Hearing Research Foundation (AHRF) Research Committee

Dhar received his bachelor’s degree in audiology and speech language therapy in 1992 from the National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, University of Mumbai, India. He also served as a clinical audiologist and clinical coordinator at the Speech and Hearing Institute Research Center in India, where he oversaw audiology clinics and schools for the deaf.

Dhar earned his master’s degree in audiology in 1995 from Utah State University in Logan, and earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. After graduating from Purdue, Dhar joined the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, as an assistant professor. He is now at the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University. His research focuses on otoacoustic emissions as they relate to cochlear mechanics.

Dr. Friedland is assistant professor at the Koss Hearing & Balance Center at Froedtert Hospital & Medical College at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He is a a board-certified otolaryngologist head and neck surgeon with fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University in adult and pediatric otology, neurotology, and cranial base surgery.

He has specialized training in surgery for hearing restoration including the placement of cochlear implants, bone-anchored aids, brainstem implants, and implantable hearing aids.

He also has an extensive training in the diagnosis and treatment of balance and vestibular disorders including Meniere's disease, vestibular migraine, and superior canal dehiscence.

Dr. Friedland's clinical interests include the use of intratympanic medical therapy in the treatment of hearing loss, dizziness, and tinnitus (ringing in the ears). In addition, his clinical emphasis at the Medical College of Wisconsin is on surgical rehabilitation of hearing loss in the adult population and the diagnosis and management of vestibular disorders. He also maintains a research program studying the molecular biology and neuroanatomy of the auditory brainstem.

Jill B. Firszt, Ph.D., serves on the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation.

Dr. Firszt is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Program in Audiology and Communication Disorders at Central Institute for the Deaf-at Washington University. She has worked in the field of cochlear implants for 21 years as a clinical audiologist and clinician-scientist.

Dr. Firszt is a member of several professional organizations, including the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, American Auditory Society, American Academy of Audiology, and the Acoustical Society of America. She is Section Editor for the Cochlear Implant Section of the Ear and Hearing Journal and serves as a reviewer for numerous hearing science and otology journals.

Dr. Firszt’s primary research interests are in the areas of speech recognition, bilateral cochlear implantation, and asymmetric hearing using behavioral and electrophysiologic methods. This externally funded work is conducted in the Cochlear Implant & Electrophysiology Laboratory in the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University. Dr. Firszt holds a PhD from the University of Illinois and also trained at Northwestern University during her doctoral studies.

Timothy C. Hain, M.D., serves on both the Board and the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation. Dr. Hain also serves on Medical Advisory Board of the Vestibular Diseases Association, and on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Vestibular Research and Contemporary Medicine International.

Dr. Hain is currently Associate Professor of Neurology and Laryngology at Northwestern University. His clinical practice focuses on evaluation and treatment of conditions that produce dizziness. He has also received several National Institutes of Health grants to investigate causes and treatments of dizziness and imbalance.

Dr. Hain is a member of several professional organizations, including the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the American Academy of Neurology (Fellow), the American Neurological Association, and the American Neurotology Society.

Dr. Hain holds an M.D. from the Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago.He has published many articles in scientific journals, as well as chapters of textbooks, regarding the diagnosis and treatment of dizziness.

David A. Klodd, Ph.D. is a Professor of Otolaryngology, an Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center.

Dr. Klodd is a practicing audiologist with 29 years of experience. He sees a wide range of patients from neonate through geriatric. His areas of expertise involves audiological evaluation and management in patients with facial nerve disorders, vestibular/balance disorders, and other otoneulogic hearing disorders such as acoustic neuroma and NF2. He sees patients for hearing aid evaluation and fitting as well as auditory implants. Audiology implant intrest is in the areas of cochlear implants, BAHA implants and most recently auditory brainstem implants (ABI).

In the Au.D. program he teaches classes in amplification, instrumentation, vestibular evaluation/rehabilitation and professional issues. Dr. Klodd has served on the Audiology Advisory Board for the Chicago Hearing Society and curretly serves on the advisory board for the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science of Syracuse University. He has served on numerous departmental and medical school committees including being the immediate past Chairman of the Committee on Admissions.

Dr. Klodd recent ares of invesitigation have been mentored with Rush Au.D. and Rush medical students. Topics of some of some of these projects have involved: (1) The use of Interpeters, (2) Nuerofibromatosis type 2: Audiologic and rehabilitative trends, (3) An Alternative Hearing Device: The Bone Anchored Hearing Aid, (4) Audiological Manifestations of Arnold Chiari Malformation, and (5) Microorganisms and Hearing Aids: Considerations for Infection Control.

Nina Kraus, Ph.D., serves on the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation.

Dr. Kraus is currently a Professor of Speech, Communication Sciences and Disorders; Neurobiology and Physiology at Northwestern University. Her primary interest is in understanding neurobiologic processes underlying speech-sound perception and learning-associated brain plasticity. Some of her research studies include Speech Perception and Learning Problems, Perceptual Learning and Brain Plasticity, Central Auditory Speech Representation and Peripheral Hearing Impairment, Representation of Speech in the Auditory CNS, Speech-Sound Perception in Noise, and Left-Brain Specialization for Speech.

Dr. Kraus holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She has published numerous scientific articles and has been a presenter at many conferences.

Anna Lysakowski, Ph.D., serves on the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation.

Dr. Lysakowski is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Lysakowski is a regular member of the National Institutes of Health Integrative, Functional, and Cognitive Neuroscience 6 (IFCN-6) Study Section. She received the R.R. Bensley Award for Outstanding Cell Biology Researh from the American Association of Anatomists. She has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters, and is the recipient of several grants from the National Institutes of Health and NASA.

Dr. Lysakowski is a member of several professional organizations, including the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, Society for Neuroscience, American Association of Anatomists, American Physiological Society, the Bárány Society, and the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology. She is on the Program Committee for the Association for Research in Otolaryngology and the Educational Affairs Committee for the American Association of Anatomists.

Dr. Lysakowski holds a Ph.D. in Anatomy from the University of Illlinois at Chicago. She received additional research training at the University of Chicago and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA. Her research interests include vestibular and cochlear peripheral anatomy, physiology and development, and vestibular efferent innervation.

Alan G. Micco, M.D., serves on both the Board and the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of the Chicago Hearing Society.

Dr. Micco is currently Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at Northwestern Medical School. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Chicago Medical Society, the Chicago Laryngology and Otological Society, and the American College of Surgeons (Associate Fellow).

Dr. Micco holds an M.D. from Northwestern University. He has published many articles in scientific journals and has received numerous awards, including Outstanding Scientific Presentation from the International Politzer Society.

Dennis M. Moore M.D. serves on both the Board of Directors and the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation. He is affiliated with Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Dr. Moore received his medical degree from Loyola University School of Medicine and continued with his residency in General Surgery there and in Head and Neck Surgery at UCLA. He was a Fellow at the UCLA Division of Head and Neck Surgery where he merited an NIH National Research Service Award in Neurotology, as a Fellow in Neurotology. He was also a Fellow in Neurotology at the University of Iowa. He is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Medical School.

Dr. Moore's medical society memberships include the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American Medical Association, North American Skull Bank Society, Association for Research in Otolaryngology, Society of Neuroscience and the American Neurotology Society. He is the author of numerous articles that have focused on Head and Neck Surgery and Laryngology.

Leonard P. Ryback, M.D., Ph.D., serves on the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation. He is also a Board Member of the Sangamon County Chapter of the American Cancer Society, and President of the Sangamon County Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.

Dr. Ryback holds an M.D. from the Medical College of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.

Donna S. Whitlon, Ph.D., serves on the Research Committee of the American Hearing Research Foundation. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Hearing Research.

Dr. Whitlon is currently Research Associate Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and Institute of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University and is a Fellow of the Hugh Knowles Center, Northwestern University.

Dr. Whitlon has served as a Permanent Member of the National Institutes of Health Integrative, Functional, and Cognitive Neuroscience 6 (IFCN-6) Study Section, as an ad hoc member of the Audiology (AUD) study section, and as Chair of the Education Committee of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology; She has published numerous scientific articles, primarily in the area of the cochlea.

Dr. Whitlon holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests lie in the area of developmental neurobiology and include cochlear development and regeneration, spiral ganglion neurite growth in vivo and in vitro, growth factors, adhesion and extracellular matrix proteins.