HHF News

NEWS In Memoriam: Robert Dobie, M.D. Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) is deeply saddened to report that Council of Scientific Trustees (CST) member and Senior Scientific Trustee Robert (Bob) Dobie, M.D., passed away on Sept. 4, 2019. Dobie spent his career committed to excellence and innovation in otolaryngology research and clinical practice.

Dobie was a highly respected member of our CST, the body that governs the grantmaking process for the Emerging Research Grants (ERG) program. His duty as a CST member was to ensure that only the most promising hearing and balance research was funded, and as senior scientific trustee, he facilitated correspondence with the press and others outside of HHF. Dobie was also an ERG alumnus who received awards in 1986, 1987, and 1988 for his research on tinnitus at University of California, Davis.

Beyond his service to HHF, Dobie was a clinical professor and chairman in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He previously served as the Director of Extramural Research at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, and was a founder and initial director of the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of Washington. Dobie authored more than 200 publications and performed particularly impactful research on the effects of noise exposure on age-related hearing loss that helped inform regulatory agencies like the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the International Standards Organization, and the World Health Organization. Dobie will be fondly remembered for his compassion and influence on the understanding of hearing loss and tinnitus. “Bob has a remarkable legacy with limitless impact on science and health. Many of us have learned from reading his books and journal articles and hearing his presentations,” board member Judy Dubno, Ph.D., says. “In all these ways and many more, Bob touched so many lives and made each one better for knowing him.”

HHF Again Earns Top Charity Ratings

In November 2019 Charity Navigator gave HHF four stars—indicating HHF is accountable, transparent, and financially healthy—for the fourth year in a row. Consumer Reports also included HHF as one of its “best charities for your donations” in the “blind and hearing impaired” charity category, also for the fourth year running. These two top-tier designations follow an earlier A+ rating renewal from CharityWatch in September 2019.

For a comprehensive list summarizing the reach of our donors’ support in 2019, please visit hhf.org/impact-2019. HHF’s generous supporters are a tremendous part of why it has again achieved these top charity ratings.

We sincerely thank our community of donors and supporters for being part of our mission.

HHF CEO Timothy Higdon (left) and John Dillard, HHF Board of Directors chair, honor Elizabeth Keithley, Ph.D., with the Collette Ramsey Baker Leadership Award.

Keithley Honored With HHF Award

In October 2019 HHF awarded Elizabeth “Betsy” Keithley, Ph.D., its inaugural Collette Ramsey Baker Leadership Award. A longtime HHF Board of Directors member and chair emerita, Keithley was honored for her decades of dedication to HHF, starting with the review of Emerging Research Grants proposals in the 1990s.

“We cannot thank Betsy enough for her many years of service toward Hearing Health Foundation’s mission of preventing, researching, and finding a cure for hearing loss and related conditions,” says HHF CEO Timothy Higdon. An accomplished researcher, Keithley has investigated mechanisms of inflammation and aging on the inner ear. Her interest in the auditory system stemmed from growing up with a mother who had a hearing loss and seeing firsthand the impact that hearing loss can have on a person’s life. Keithley is a professor emerita in the department of surgery and otolaryngology at the University of California at San Diego.

“Betsy has generously devoted her entire career to the study of hearing and its preservation and restoration,” says HHF board chair John Dillard. “For this and her dedication to HHF, we owe her an immeasurable debt of thanks.”

New Leaders at Major Research Organizations Are Connected With HHF

At a recent Friends of the Congressional Hearing Health Caucus meeting (back row, left to right): Kate Carr of Hearing Industries Association, Joy Onozuka of the American Tinnitus Association, Jerry White of American Speech-LanguageHearing Association, Debara Tucci, M.D., of the NIDCD, Julia Bellinger of the International Hearing Society, Timothy Higdon of HHF, and James Denneny III, M.D., of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery; and (front row): Joni Alberg of AG Bell, Lise Hamlin of the Hearing Loss Association of America, Donna Sorkin of American Cochlear Implant Alliance, and Catherine Palmer, Ph.D., of the American Academy of Audiology.

Debara L. Tucci, M.D., became the director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) in September 2019. Tucci is a professor of surgery and director of the cochlear implant program in the Division of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University in North Carolina. She is a past member of HHF’s Council of Scientific Trustees (CST), the governing body of the Emerging Research Grants program that reviews each application for scientific merit and program relevance. In addition, Ruth Litovsky, Ph.D., a professor in the division of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is the 2019–2020 president-elect of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO), the world’s largest organization of hearing and balance researchers. The ARO’s annual Midwinter Meeting is a conference that showcases the latest findings and provides an opportunity for scientists, engineers, physicians, postdoctoral fellows, and students to meet and exchange ideas.