Widex
Jerilyn Balent has been appointed an Atlantic Region sales representative. She is an audiologist with more than 20 years of clinical practice experience. Balent has worked at Widex for several years as a regional training audiologist.

American Academy of Audiology
Albert Mehl, MD, has been selected as the featured speaker for the 2006 Marion Downs Lecture in Pediatric Audiology at the American Academy of Audiology’s AudiologyNOW! in Minneapolis on April 6 at 8 pm.

In his presentation, “Beyond newborn hearing screening: Childhood hearing loss and the primary care physician,” Mehl will discuss the ongoing education of primary care physicians pertaining to newborn hearing screening and the importance of timely follow up with those infants who do not pass the initial screening. He will also focus on the appropriate assessment of risk factors for early acquired hearing loss. Mehl will discuss new opportunities for refinements in newborn hearing screening, and will present suggestions to improve the collegial interaction between audiologists and physicians.

Mehl is a pediatrician and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has practiced general pediatrics for 22 years. He is currently with Kaiser Permanente in Lafayette, Colo, and is a member of the clinical faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Audiology Foundation of America
The Audiology Foundation of America, Lafayette, Ind, appointed three new directors to its board during a November 12, 2005, meeting in St. Charles, Ill. The new board members—Charles Stone, AuD, Parry Heide, BSEE, and Michael Thelen, AuD—began their board duties January 1.

Stone is the founder of ESCO, a company that provides loss and damage insurance for hearing devices. He is a founding member of the Minnesota Academy of Audiology, as well as its current president, and is an ADA and AAA member.

Heide, of Madison, Wis, holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering. He has more than 25 years of experience in medical product design and development, including international expertise.

Thelen has been a practicing audiologist for 27 years, and owns Audiology and Hearing Services Inc, Appleton, Wis. He attended the ADA Conference on Professional Education in 1988, which launched the AuD movement, and earned his AuD from the Arizona School of Health Sciences. He is a member of AAA and ADA, and served eight years as the audiologist on the Hearing and Speech Examining Board of the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing. Thelen is a past president of the Wisconsin Alliance of Hearing Professionals, and was voted Wisconsin’s “Audiologist of the Year” in 2004.

Richard Burba, MBA, and Tom Morris, AuD, have fulfilled their terms of board service and have transitioned to the AFA Advisory Committee, along with three new advisory committee members: Brad Ingrao, AuD, Coral Jud, AuD, and Mary Anne Larkin, AuD. Advisory committee members Peggy Blum, AuD, Larry Englemann, AuD, Gregory J. Frazer, PhD, AuD, and Richard E. Gans, PhD, have completed their terms of service.

Carl C. Crandell, PhD, 47, died unexpectedly December 6, 2005. A well-known and influential audiologist who was a leading authority on assistive devices and classroom acoustics, Crandell was also a talented educator and presenter, and an author of two textbooks, numerous book chapters, and over 50 articles, including several in The Hearing Review. Crandell performed his undergraduate and graduate degree work at Florida State University, then obtained his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1989. He served as an assistant professor at the Callier Center/UTD before becoming an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Florida. He also worked and had significant influence in a variety of audiology settings—including hospitals, university clinics, school systems, and in private practice. Crandell’s research focused on the areas of listening, communication, and speech perception in hearing-impaired pediatric and elderly listeners. He also led an effort in compiling research on the topic of amplification and quality of life issues. Along with colleagues Drs Joseph Smaldino and Carol Flexer, he was the co-author of one of the most definitive books of its kind: Sound Field Amplification, Applications to Speech Perception and Classroom Acoustics. However, as Dr James Hall III pointed out in his eulogy, Crandell’s greatest legacy “will be perpetuated for years to come by his former students” to whom he was so dedicated.