AuDacity 2025 - Bios

Dr. Maansi V. Aghera is a clinical audiologist at Atrius Health, specializing in diagnostic audiology, amplification solutions, and patient-centered hearing healthcare. With a Doctorate of Audiology from Northwestern University, she is committed to improving hearing accessibility and patient education through interdisciplinary collaboration and evidence-based practices.

Dr. Katie is an audiologist turned content marketing specialist dedicated to helping private practice audiologists grow their businesses through strategic social media and digital marketing. As the founder of Ascending Audiologists, she provides done-for-you content solutions that position audiologists as trusted experts in their communities.

As the Chief Operating Officer at Neurotone AI, Dr. Miles Aron leads a company dedicated to transforming hearing care through AI-powered aural rehabilitation solutions. Neurotone's flagship product, Lace AI Pro, enhances listening and comprehension skills, bridging the gap between patients and hearing care professionals and setting a new standard in the industry.

Dr. Aron's career has always been centered on the science of sound. His academic journey began with acoustics research roles at NASA and the US Department of Energy via the Acoustical Engineering program at the University of Hartford, followed by a Fulbright Scholarship in Zürich, Switzerland focused on ultrasound in medicine, and ultimately a PhD in Biomedical Acoustics from the University of Oxford. Prior to Neurotone, Dr. Aron played key roles in the development of numerous health tech products, bringing improved care to patients around the world.

Sheena Burks is the Chief Clinical Officer at WSA, where she focuses on maximizing patient and provider outcomes across WSA companies in the U.S. In this role, she leverages her deep understanding of clinical practice and healthcare delivery to enhance the impact of hearing care services. Previously, Burks served as Chief Marketing Officer for WSA Americas region, overseeing marketing and branding initiatives for wholesale and retail brands, including Signia, Widex, Rexton, and HearUSA. She also led the integration of brand teams throughout the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.

Since beginning her career as an audiologist, Burks has held leadership positions in the hearing aid industry for over 20 years. She brings a unique perspective to her work, grounded in a deep understanding of the needs of hearing care professionals and their patients. Her leadership is focused on driving awareness, delivering value, and increasing profitability by building and inspiring high-performing teams. Oliver holds a BA and MBA from Temple University, an MA from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Doctor of Audiology degree from Salus University.

Justin R. Burwinkel, Au.D is a Senior Research Audiologist at Starkey. Dr. Burwinkel’s research has investigated potential improvements to digital noise reduction, feedback suppression, and the benefits of various sensor technologies for use with hearing instruments. In addition, he has filed numerous patents relating to fall risk management, artificial intelligence, and hearing aid connectivity. Dr. Burwinkel earned both his B.S. and Au.D. at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Burwinkel is a collaborator with the University of Cincinnati’s FETCHLAB.

Rick Carlson is the founder and CEO of Neurotone AI, the company behind Lace AI Pro—a pioneering auditory training solution that helps patients with hearing loss improve speech understanding and cognitive function.

A seasoned technology leader, Rick brings deep experience in bridging product development, sales, and marketing disciplines to build customer-centered solutions. At Neurotone, he leads a team dedicated to revolutionizing hearing healthcare by equipping practitioners with innovative tools that unlock a completely new way to help patients—while driving better outcomes and building healthier, more profitable practices.

Michelle Carroll is the CEO and Founder of 1 Stop Marketing Solutions, a full-service digital marketing agency based in South Florida. With over two decades of experience in online marketing, Michelle has established herself as a leader in healthcare and audiology marketing, adeptly integrating the latest digital marketing trends to drive client success. A certified Google Partner, Michelle's agency provides expert web development, SEO, content marketing, and paid search services. She specializes in leveraging AI-driven digital strategies to enhance patient engagement and business growth and is the forefront of integrating AI into marketing, using predictive analytics and automation to optimize outreach. Her work has significantly improved digital visibility for her audiology clients, where AI-driven tools enhance patient care and marketing efficiency. Michelle shares insights on AI’s impact on healthcare marketing and is passionate about helping businesses thrive in the digital age.

Kim Cavitt, AuD, is the owner of Audiology Resources, which provides comprehensive operational, compliance, and reimbursement consulting services and products to hearing healthcare clinics, providers, organizations, buying groups, and manufacturers. Throughout her career, Cavitt has been actively involved in these issues and has written numerous articles, provided training, and given presentations at both the state and national levels on these topics.

Prior to her consulting business, she served as a clinical audiologist at The Ohio State University and Northwestern University and also spent two years as the director of professional relations at HearPO, now Amplifon Hearing Services. Cavitt is a past president of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA)

Bridget Sobek Dobyan is the Executive Director of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA), where she leads the organization’s strategic initiatives and advocacy efforts. Prior to this role, she served as HIA’s Director of Public Policy. Ms. Dobyan has a diverse background in nonprofit leadership, federal and state government affairs, and legislative policy. She previously worked on Capitol Hill as Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Dave Trott of Michigan, advised the Michigan Senate on policy matters, and managed government affairs for a Washington, D.C.-based energy efficiency advocacy organization. She holds a J.D. from Michigan State University College of Law and a B.A. in political science from Saginaw Valley State University. She is a member of both the State Bar of Michigan and the D.C. Bar.

Dave Fabry is Chief Hearing Health Officer at Starkey, where he has worked since 2009. He OSS a Past President of AAA, and currently serves as a Board Member of AAS. He resides in Minnesota, and is a proud husband, Father, and Grandparent to two future Audiologists!

Dr. Fitzgerald is an Associate Professor and Chief of Audiology at Stanford where he oversees the adult and pediatric audiology practices. He completed his undergraduate degree at The Wichita State University followed by Clinical training in Audiology at Vanderbilt University. He then completed a Ph.D. at Northwestern University where he studied psychoacoustics and perceptual learning. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the New York University School of Medicine where he examined the process of adaptation in recipients of cochlear implants, and later joined the faculty at NYU. In 2015 he joined the faculty of Stanford University as the Chief of Audiology. His current research interest are the translation of new tools to measure suprathreshold function in the audiologic test battery, with an emphasis on speech-in noise measurements. He also continues to examine adaptation in recipients of cochlear implants, and new tools to help patients with tinnitus.

Susannah Fox is a renowned health strategist, former Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and author of Rebel Health: A Field Guide to the Patient-Led Revolution in Medical Care. Fox’s work documents the transformative power of patient-led innovation in healthcare. Drawing on two decades of research and interviews, she highlights how patients, survivors, and caregivers have pioneered solutions and built communities-often outside the mainstream system-to address unmet health needs. Her “rebel health” framework identifies four archetypes-seekers, networkers, solvers, and champions-who collectively drive change and improve care for all.

Laurel Gregory holds a Master’s degree in audiology and has been working the field of audiology for over 30 years. Her past work experience include private practice audiologist, research audiologist, Manager of Clinical Research for ReSound and Starkey, Director of Product Management for Starkey, and Chief Engagement Officer of Skafold, LLC. Currently Laurel is the Director of Education and Research for Entheos Audiology Cooperative where she provides workshops, manages courses and conferences, and tracks and reports data for humanitarian initiatives. Laurel is a Certified DiSC facilitator, 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team and an Everything DiSC Authorized Partner, a Certified Facilitator and Trainer for the Passion Test and certified in the Creatrix. Laurel has presented on the topic of career and team engagement and various research topics at multiple AAA and ADA conferences, several state conferences, and Universities.

Dr. Brian Harris is a 2005 graduate of the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry and a practicing dentist in Phoenix, AZ. He has been recognized as the Phoenix Magazine Top General Cosmetic Dentist from 2007 – 2021 and AZ Foothills Best Cosmetic Dentist in Scottsdale, AZ. He is also the CEO and founder of www.smilevirtual.com, the leading tele-dentistry platform connecting patients looking to improve their smile with qualified cosmetic dentists around the world, and creator of www.klenproducts.com. Dr Harris is also an international speaker and educator and has lectured more than 250 times in five different countries.

Dr. Heidi Hill is a Doctor of Audiology with over 29 years of experience and the founder of Hearing Health Clinic in Osseo, MN. She is known for her whole-system approach to hearing care—addressing the ear-to-brain connection with a focus on both auditory and cognitive processing.

Dr. Hill’s clinical work highlights the limitations of traditional hearing care models in meeting real-world communication needs. In response, she has pursued advanced training and research in auditory processing and cognition, applying these insights to create more functional, brain-based assessment and treatment protocols.

She is a passionate advocate for evolving audiology to include cognitive-informed fitting strategies and personalized care. Through her work, Dr. Hill empowers audiologists to deliver more meaningful outcomes by integrating bottom-up and top-down processing into everyday clinical practice.

Steve Hughbanks graduated from Wayland Baptist University in Texas majoring in Business Management and Psychology. He is an innovative leader in human resources management with over 25 years of hands-on experience in all major functional areas of human resources. Steve has been with Audigy for over 11 years and is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional. He is passionate about using his experience to strategically coach business owners to become strong leaders by impacting their communication, employee engagement, recruiting process, and influence.

Kimberly Jenkins received her doctorate in clinical audiology from the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. She is currently a Clinical Audiologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and has been collaborating with industry and the intelligence community for over five years to develop feasible audiologic treatment options for those in secure, technology-controlled work environments. She serves as subject matter expert for hearing aid complications in secure areas, low-gain hearing aids, auditory processing evaluations, andacts as Hearing Aid Program Manager. She was previously a research audiologist at the National Military Audiology at Speech Pathology Center at WRNMMC, specializing in auditory evoked potential measures. She continues to collaborate with the research department and remains involved in ongoing protocols related to evaluation and treatment for subjective complaints of hearing in background noise, including efficacy of low-gain hearing aid use.

Dr. Jason Leyendecker is an audiologist and business owner. He earned his Bachelor of Science in speech and hearing sciences from Minnesota State University Moorhead and his Doctor of Audiology (AuD) from A.T. Still University in 2010. After starting as an extern at Audiology Concepts, he stayed on and eventually took over the business in 2017, growing it from two to six locations with 25 employees.

He specializes in tinnitus management and runs a clinic that sees patients from around the world. He has also taught a tinnitus course at A.T. Still University and helps train audiology students.

Dr. Leyendecker is currently the past president of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology and has been involved in state and national professional organizations. He speaks at conferences and writes articles on private practice, tinnitus management, and team building. He serves as a subject matter expert for APSO as well as ABA for the tinnitus certificate.

Dr. Emily E. McMahan, is the owner of Alaska Hearing & Tinnitus Center and an internationally recognized expert in tinnitus care. She provides advanced clinical services to high-needs tinnitus patients through both her Anchorage-based clinic, Telehealth appointments, and in-person field clinics across the U.S.

Dr. McMahan holds multi-state licensure to expand access to evidence-based care and is dedicated to improving clinical outcomes for individuals living with tinnitus and hearing loss. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Alaska and the University of South Dakota, and she regularly mentors audiologists on best practices in tinnitus management and clinic development.

Dr. McMahan is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, sharing her expertise on tinnitus, Telehealth, and innovative care models. A graduate of Salus University, Dr. McMahan is also a published author in Nature Communications Medicine for her work on real-world tinnitus treatment outcomes.

Lucy Orr-Ewing leads Policy efforts for CHAI and joins from Stanford Medicine as a Harkness Fellow in the Clinical Excellence Research Center. At Stanford, her research focused on the current landscape for testing and evaluation of Generative AI in healthcare, on best practice LLM deployment, and on patient perceptions of AI in healthcare.

Prior, she was Chief of Staff for Technology Policy for the National Health Service (NHS) in England, during which she convened more than 200 portfolios of work into one strategy, the Digital Health and Care Plan, and delivered the NHS’ first HealthTech Summit. She was also Head of Strategy for the Federated Data Platform Programme, the UK’s largest investment into its data infrastructure to connect all operational health data for the UK.

Prasad Panchangam is an inventor, serial entrepreneur and technologist with 30 years of experience building products in both software and semiconductor markets. Prasad is currently founder CEO of Saigeware Technologies – a healthcare startup that uses data science and AI to provide personalized and actionable insights into health. Before devoting himself to Saigeware, Prasad worked for sixteen years in the San Francisco bay area in the US in a variety of roles at companies such as Applied Micro, Microsoft and HP. He has been granted several patents, written thousands of lines of code, closed sales with fortune 100 companies, raised VC money and had successful exits. Prasad’s passion is to bring healthcare providers and AI/ML technology together to provide the best outcomes in people’s physical and emotional wellness.

Thomas A. Powers, Ph.D., is currently the Founder/Managing Member of Powers Consulting LLC, providing management consulting to the hearing health industry. He began his career as a partner in an Audiology private practice, followed by over 35 years in the hearing aid industry. Prior to his current role, he was Vice-President, Government Services and Professional Relations for Sivantos Inc. (now WS Audiology), and served as the Compliance Officer for seven years. Dr. Powers currently holds an appointment as an Adjunct Instructor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Ohio University. Dr. Powers received his B.S. from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Audiology-Hearing Science from Ohio University. He is a licensed audiologist in New Jersey. Dr Powers also holds the Certificate of Healthcare Compliance from Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey.

Associate professor in Otolaryngology and Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and Core Faculty at the NYU Langone Health Optimal Aging Institute.

Board-certified optometric physician, Brianna Rhue, OD, FAAO, brings her expertise in diagnosing and managing ocular diseases to West Broward Eyecare Associates in Tamarac, Florida. Among her specialties are myopia control (orthokeratology), management of keratoconus, diabetic eye care, and treatments for glaucoma and diseases of the cornea. She is a nationally recognized leader in Myopia Management, lecturing extensively throughout the year, and is currently a key principal investigator in the study of myopia management. She is an active member of the Broward County Optometric Association, the Florida Optometric Association, and the American Optometric Association.

Dr. Alyssa Ricevuto has been with Phonak since 2017, serving in various training roles as Clinical Trainer, Key Account Clinical Trainer, and Senior Clinical Trainer. She is currently the Program Marketing Manager and a major contributor to the Technology Specialist Training Program. Prior to joining Phonak, Alyssa spent ten years working as a clinician in both private practice and ENT settings. Alyssa received her BA from the University of Connecticut, Doctorate of Audiology from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and her MBA from Southern New Hampshire University.

Melissa Carnes Rose, Au.D. is the owner of Nardelli Audiology. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology and Audiology from West Virginia University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Dr. Rose earned her Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) from West Virginia University, graduating at the top of her class and completed her clinical fellowship at Blue Ridge Hearing and Balance in Bluefield, WV. Following her fellowship, Dr. Rose returned to West Virginia and began working at Nardelli Audiology while serving part-time at Ohio Valley Medical Center, where she treated patients with balance disorders. In 2012, she joined Nardelli Audiology full-time and now leads a growing team across three locations. Dr. Rose specializes in adult hearing care, including the fitting of advanced digital and wireless hearing technology. She is passionate about reconnecting people with the sounds of life and considers it a privilege to serve the communities of Marion, Harrison, and surrounding counties. Outside of her clinical work, Dr. Rose enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband, David, and their son, Elijah.

Alicia D.D. Spoor, Au.D. is President and Audiologist of Designer Audiology, LLC in Highland, MD. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University and earned her Doctor of Audiology degree from Gallaudet University. She completed her fourth-year externship at the Mayo Clinic Arizona and joined the hearing aid and cochlear implant teams before moving back to Maryland. She opened her own practice in 2014 with an unbundled/itemized pricing structure, one of the first in the nation to do so from day one, to benefit the patient and demonstrate the value of the audiologist. Dr. Spoor is a Past President of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) and Maryland Academy of Audiology (MAA); she is the current ADA Advocacy Chair and MAA Legislative Chair. Alicia is a past recipient of ADA’s Craig W. Johnson Advocacy Award and MSU’s College of Communication Arts & Sciences’ Outstanding Alumni.

Brian Taylor, AuD, is the senior director of audiology for WS Audiology. A veteran of the hearing care industry, Dr. Taylor also serves as the editor of Audiology Practices, a contributing editor at This Week in Hearing and an adjunct instructor at the University of Wisconsin. He is a highly sought lecturer with more than 30 years of clinical, business management and teaching experience. He has written more than 100 articles, created dozens of popular CE courses, and published six books. His latest textbook, co-authored with Bob Traynor, Strategic Practice Management, will be published in 2025.

Dr. Nora Visscher-Simon is a clinical audiologist at Presbyterian Ear Institute (PEI). She earned her Doctorate of Audiology from Northwestern University, where she researched the accessibility and impact of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing devices in hearing healthcare. Dr. Visscher-Simon’s passion for audiology advocacy and business innovation began as a student when she participated in the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) student business competition. Beyond audiology, Dr. Visscher-Simon has a diverse professional background, including consulting for early-stage startups, conducting market research, and helping to secure funding for healthcare initiatives. She enjoys using her experience to make hearing healthcare more accessible for patients. Her experience in business, advocacy, and audiology gives her a unique perspective on how marketing strategies, healthcare literacy, and AI-driven tools can bridge communication gaps in hearing healthcare.

Dr. Kathy Wiederkehr became board-certified in Canine and Feline Practice by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP) and has over two decades of experience caring for pets across Southern California. She founded PetPoint Medical Center & Resort, which was a large full-service pet care facility in Irvine, CA. After its acquisition by VCA, the largest corporate veterinary group in the U.S., she stayed on as Medical Director for three years. Dr. Wiederkehr is also the co-founder of ClicOn Productions and a champion of Edutainment—making medical insight both engaging and easy to grasp. Her mix of clinical expertise and creative storytelling continues to educate and inspire pet lovers everywhere.