Pacific University’s Doctor of Audiology degree program has received accreditation by the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. The 3-year AuD program will begin this fall in Hillsboro, Ore, with 23 students.
In the university’s press release, school director Victoria Keetay, PhD, said, "We are very pleased the CAA is satisfied with our curriculum proposal, and are committed to providing both the didactic and experiential education to ensure our graduates will practice at the highest level."
Keetay joined Pacific in September 2011 as director of the school after serving as senior director of education at the American Academy of Audiology in Reston, Va. In less than a year, building on Pacific’s preliminary work in designing the program, Keetay has developed a 3-year curriculum and assembled a staff that includes the appointments of three experienced faculty members.
The new faculty members include Shailpi Banerjee, PhD, and James A. Baer, AuD, who began their tenures in June as clinical education and academic education directors, respectively. Both are certified in audiology by the American Board of Audiology. Baer also holds certification in audiology from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
In addition to teaching audiology and hearing courses at Northwestern and Northern Illinois University, Banerjee has spent the last 5 years as a senior research audiologist for Starkey Hearing Technologies.
The third new faculty member is David K. Brown, PhD, associate professor. Brown comes to Pacific from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati, where he had been director of audiological research at the Communication Sciences Research Center, and assistant professor in both communication sciences and disorders and otolaryngology since 2005.