Blake Wilson
Commission Chair
Duke University

Prof. Wilson is one of two inaugural Co-Directors of the Duke Hearing Center (the other inaugural Co-Director is Prof. Tucci) and is an Adjunct or Consulting Professor in each of three departments at Duke: Surgery, Biomedical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick in the UK. He has been involved in the development of the cochlear implant (CI) for more than four decades and is the inventor of many of the signal processing strategies used with the present-day CIs. One of his papers, in the journal Nature, is the most cited publication in the CI field. He or he and his teams or colleagues have been recognized with a high number of awards and honors, most notably the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, “for engineering cochlear implants that allow the deaf to hear” (to Wilson and four others), and the 2013 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, “for the development of the modern cochlear implant” (to Wilson and two others). The Russ Prize is the world’s top award for bioengineering and the Lasker Awards are second only to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for recognizing advances in medicine and medical science. Prof. Wilson is a member of the USA’s National Academy of Engineering and is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (the IEEE) and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. He has served as the Chair for three international conferences and as the Co-Chair for three more international conferences. In recent years he has become keenly interested in improving hearing health care worldwide and that, along with inspiring discussions with Prof. Gerard O’Donoghue on the topic, was the genesis of the invited review in The Lancet by the two of them, Prof. Tucci, and Prof. Michael Merson, on “Global hearing health care: new findings and perspectives,” Lancet 390: 2503-2515, 2017. Three further articles that are relevant to the present project (The Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss) are Tucci, Wilson, and O’Donoghue, “The growing – and now alarming – burden of hearing loss worldwide,” Otol Neurotol 38: 1387-1388, 2017; O’Donoghue, Tucci, and Wilson, “The mounting burden of hearing loss worldwide: gearing up global collaboration,” ENT & Audiology News 26: 65-66, 2017; and Wilson, Tucci, O’Donoghue, Merson, and Dr. Helen Frankish, “A Lancet Commission to address the global burden of hearing loss,” Lancet 393: 2106-2108, 2019.

Debara Tucci
Commission Co-Chair
National Institutes of Health

Dr. Tucci is Director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to joining the NIH in September 2019, She was Professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University, where she served on faculty since 1993. Dr. Tucci is an otolaryngologist with a subspecialty interest in otology, neurotology and skull base surgery. Prior to her medical career, Dr. Tucci trained as an audiologist and practiced in the field for four years. She completed a Masters program in Business Administration at Duke University, in 2013.

While at Duke, Dr. Tucci co-founded, with Dr. Blake Wilson, the multidisciplinary Duke Hearing Center. She has received continuous NIH funding since beginning her academic career. Her primary clinical research interests focused on addressing barriers to hearing health care for older adults, starting with the primary care setting, and establishing a network of academic and community-based research sites to conduct clinical research in hearing and balance disorders. Dr. Tucci has also led NIDCD grants to train and mentor the next generation of clinician investigators in otolaryngology and communication sciences. At the NIH, she continues her work to address hearing loss as a global public health problem in her role as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss. Her involvement with the Commission builds on her decades-long interest in establishing infrastructure and priorities for hearing health care, in the US and abroad.

Dr. Tucci has served the specialty of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery in many national roles, including Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), President of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the American Otological Society and the American Neurotology Society, and is active in numerous other professional societies.

Shelly Chadha
Commission Co-Chair
World Health Organization

Shelly Chadha is a native of India and currently serves as the Medical Officer for the World Health Organization (WHO) Programme for Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss. She oversees WHO’s work on prevention of deafness and hearing loss including advocacy for prioritization of hearing care; technical support to countries for development of hearing care strategies and development of tools and guidance; World Hearing Day and the Make Listening Safe initiative.

Shelly trained as an otolaryngologist at the University of Delhi, India and subsequently undertook doctoral studies in public health at the same university. Prior to joining WHO in 2011, she was working as a Professor of Otolaryngology at the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, India. She has long-standing experience in policy development for hearing care. She served as a member of the national committee for development of National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness in India. She was also closely associated with the development of the Sound Hearing 2030 initiative in the South East Asia region.

Bolajoko Olusanya
Commission Co-Chair
Centre for Healthy Start Initiative

Bolajoko Olusanya is the Executive Director, Centre for Healthy Start Initiative, Lagos, Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). She trained as a developmental paediatrician in Nigeria and United Kingdom and holds a PhD in child health and audiological medicine from the University College London (UCL). She pioneered universal newborn hearing screening in Nigeria and has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles in reputable journals spanning audiology, paediatrics, otolaryngology, general medicine, maternal and child health, and global health policy. Her scientific work is inspired by her personal experience of congenital hearing loss and uniquely focused on the comprehensive, integrated and community-oriented management of developmental disabilities including the identification and prevention of avoidable causes such as severe hyperbilirubinaemia. She is a member of several professional associations, including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), Royal Society of Medicine, Society for Paediatric Research (SPR), International Society of Audiology and International Epidemiological Association. She is a member of the Hearing Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study and Coordinator, Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaboration (GRDDC). She was the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Aram Glorig Award from the International Society of Audiology, in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the field of audiology and global hearing healthcare.

Enis Bariş
Commissioner
The World Bank

Enis Barış is a medical doctor with graduate degrees in Public Health (M.Sc.) and Epidemiology (Ph.D.) and a wide range of experience as director, manager and technical expert in development and research in over 30 countries in Europe, East Asia, Middle East, and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America. At present, Enis Barış is Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition, and Population in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) Region of the World Bank. Previously he was Practice Manager in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region, Acting Director for Human Development and Sector Manager for the Middle East and North Africa Region, a position he had come back to after having been Director of the Division of Country Health Systems at the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization between 2008 and 2010.

Dr. Barış joined the World Bank Group in 1999 and worked as a senior staff for about ten years in leading the policy dialogue, technical and analytical work and operations on health and human development in the regions of East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia and Middle East and North Africa before he moved on to the leadership track as Director in WHO EURO. His technical work at the Bank spans over both public health issues such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, indoor air pollution, and lung health, as well as broader health policy, system and services pertaining to health sector reform agenda in high and middle-income countries.

Before he joined the WBG, Dr. Barış was with the International Development and Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) for six years where he served as Chief Scientist and Senior Scientific Advisor, mainly focusing on health policy systems and services research in the developing world. While with IDRC he was also Executive Director, Research for International Tobacco Control (RITC).

At various stages of his career, Enis Barış has chaired, or served on, the Board of several international organizations, namely as President of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and Chair of its Scientific Committee; as Board members of the Council of Health Research for Development (COHRED) and the Alliance for Health System and Policy Research (AHSPR), among others. More recently, he serves or has served as WBG representative on the Global Burden of Disease Independent Advisory Committee (IAC), WHO’s  GPW13 Impact Framework Task Force,  and Asia Pacific Observatory (APO). He is the editor and author of several books and peer-reviewed publications. He also serves, at present, as Adjunct Professor at the Duke Global Health Institute.

Ricardo Ferreira Bento
Commissioner
University of Sao Paulo

Graduated in medicine in 1978 with a Ph.D. in Ciencies in Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (1988). He is currently a Professor and Chairman in the Department of Otolaryngology- University of Sao Paulo Medical School, Director of the Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Chairman of the Board of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation, member of the editorial board of the Associação Paulista de Medicina and the Brazilian Journal of Otolaryngology and the journal International Archives of Otolaryngology, Consultant Ad Hoc Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Chairman of Center for Research and Advanced Development in Otolaryngology, consultant of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Foundation for Research Support of São Paulo and Member of the Board of the International Federation of Otorhinolaringological Societs and the American Academy of Otolaryngology. He is internationally known for research and treatment of diseases of the ear with an emphasis on tumors of the ear and cranial base, acoustic neuromas, facial paralysis, tinnitus, cochlear implant, deafness and chronic otitis media. Dr. Bento has conducted more than 500 lectures as a guest in 40 countries and has 435 scientific papers published in Medical Journals. He ministers regular courses of Ear Surgery and more than 1600 doctors specialized in their courses. He was former President of the Brazilian Association of Otorhinolaryngology and Neck Surgery and President of the Latin Societas ENT. President of the Otology and Neurotology Committee of IFOS- International Federation of Otorhinolaryngologic Societies.

Janet Bettger
Commissioner
Duke University

Janet Prvu Bettger, ScD, FAHA is an Associate Professor at Duke University and director of the Duke Roybal Translational Research Center on Behavioral and Social Science Interventions for Older Adults funded by the National Institute on Aging. She is committed to establishing real-world evidence aimed to improve health care quality and policies that reduce the burden of disease and disability. As a health services researcher and implementation scientist, her research extends from observational studies to randomized and pragmatic trials. She is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NINDS, NHLBI, NIDCD, and Fogarty), the Veterans Healthcare Administration, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute for different studies that aim to promote the implementation of evidence-based interventions for improved functional independence and participation in the community. She has led research globally on the implementation of several integrated care models to improve the transition home from the hospital (e.g., VERITAS, COMPASS, and RECOVER trials). She also studies the implementation of community-based models of care that can prevent functional decline (e.g., integrating physical therapists into primary care as first-line providers to address musculoskeletal pain, community-based model of structured and progressive exercise for older Veterans, and primary care models for stroke recovery and older adult hearing healthcare). In addition to implementation-effectiveness studies, she has partnered with experts in Singapore on stroke systems research and worked on large cluster randomized trials to improve evidence-based care in Brazil, Peru, Argentina (BRIDGE-Stroke) and China (CNSR and Golden Bridge). To address health locally, she is the faculty director for Help Desk, a student volunteer community resource navigator model addressing social determinants of health.

Zulfiqar Bhutta
Commissioner
Aga Khan University

Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Inaugural Robert Harding Chair and Ibn Sina Scholar in Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health and the Founding Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health at the Aga Khan University. He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading Universities including Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, Boston University, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Dr. Bhutta is a Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan, co-Chair of the Maternal and Child Health oversight committee of World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Chairman of the Coalition of Centres in Global Child Health. He is the past-President of the Commonwealth Association of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and the Federation of Asia-Oceania Perinatal Societies and, as the current President of the International Pediatric Association, is a leading voice for health professionals supporting integrated maternal, newborn and child health globally.

Dr. Bhutta leads large research groups based in Toronto, Karachi and Nairobi with a special interest in research synthesis, scaling up evidence-based interventions in community settings and implementation of RMNCAH&N interventions in the context of humanitarian settings. His work with community health workers and outreach services has influenced integrated maternal and newborn outreach programs for marginalized populations all over the world and his collaboration with international organizations in developing consensus-based essential interventions for women, children and adolescents is guiding global policy.

In addition to serving on boards and committees with the Global Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, the WHO, and the UN, Dr. Bhutta is on several international editorial advisory boards including the Lancet, BMJ, PLoS, BMC Public Health and the Cochrane CDPLG and ARI groups. He has published 8 books, 100 chapters, and 850+ indexed publications to date. He is one of the most cited academics in global health (H index 144, i10 index 686). He has been a leading member of major Lancet series including Newborn Survival (2005 & 2014), Stillbirths (2011 & 2016), Early Child Development (2016), and Canada: global leadership on health (2018) as well as Lancet Commissions including Women & Health (2015), Indigenous Health (2016) and Adolescent Health (2016). Dr. Bhutta has won several awards, including the WHO Ihsan Dogramaci Family Health award (2014), the inaugural TUBA Academy of Sciences Award for global contributions to Health and Life Sciences (2015), the Geneva Forum for Health award for contributions to maternal and child health globally (2016), and the President of Pakistan Pride of Performance Award for contributions towards Education and Health (2016), and the BMJ South Asia Award for Outstanding Contributions (2017).

Professor Bhutta obtained his MBBS from the University of Peshawar and his PhD from the Karolinska Institute. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

Katherine Bouton
Commissioner
Hearing Loss Association of America

Katherine Bouton is an advocate and educator for the deaf and hard of hearing. Her most recent book is Smart Hearing: Strategies, Skills and Resources for Living Better with Hearing Loss (October 2018). Smart Hearing is an up-to-the-minute guide to the rapidly changing world of hearing aids, including over-the-counter hearing aids, “hearables,” cochlear implants and assistive listening devices. 

She is also the author of Shouting Won’t Help (2013), a memoir of losing her hearing in midlife and how it affected her, and of “Living Better with Hearing Loss” (2013). Katherine’s books are available at Amazon.com or at your favorite independent bookstore.

Her 40-year career in journalism began at The New Yorker and concluded with 22 years at The New York Times. She traveled the world as a free-lance magazine writer in the years between her employment at those two institutions. Her work focused on the scientific process and the people who pursue it. She is currently working on a book about the search for a biological cure for hearing loss.

She is President of the New York City Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America and is a member of the National Board of Trustees of HLAA.

Patricia Castellanos de Munoz
Commissioner
CEDAF Hearing Center

Dr. Patricia Castellanos is the founder and director of CEDAF–Hearing Centre, in Guatemala City. She is well-known throughout Latin America as a leading expert in audiology, with over 25 years of experience in diagnosing and treating hearing loss in various settings: hospitals, clinics, schools, and philanthropic foundations, for patients of all ages from newborn to elderly.

Since beginning her practice in 1990 as a pioneer in the field of audiology, Dr. Paty Castellanos continually expands on the strength of several advanced degrees by attending annual symposia and training courses with the most highly-respected global Associations and manufacturers of hearing loss solutions. Based on international protocols, her innovative options for intervention, together with her extensive knowledge and experience, allow Dr. Castellanos to provide patient services that surpass all other providers in Guatemala and Central America.

CEDAF, Hearing Centre is a full-service integrated audiology center dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, management, and rehabilitation of hearing loss, serving as a reference of good practice for other clinics in Central and South America. Some of Dr. Castellanos´ achievements are:

• Started the first national neonatal hearing screening in Guatemala
• Trained more than a dozen audiology technicians to increase the outreach of audiological services in rural communities
• Conducted hearing clinics throughout the country, where over 7000 hearing aids have been fitted in children and adults.
• Introduced Cochlear implant technology in Guatemala

Has been awarded by organizations like Audiology Foundation of America: Professional Leadership Award; College of Public Health and Health Professions: International Student Award; Gallaudet University:  Hellen fay Award; Vital Voices: VV100

Charlotte Chiong
Commissioner
University of the Philippines

Dr. Chiong is internationally recognized in otolaryngology, a pioneer in cochlear implantation surgery, lead researcher and advocate for the enactment of a national universal newborn hearing screening programme, principal investigator for genetics of hearing loss as well as biomedical device and teleaudiology applications for improving hearing health care delivery in the Philippines and appointed 17th Dean of the U.P. College of Medicine since June 2018.
She graduated B.S. Zoology in U.P. Diliman (Summa Cum Laude, 1981), Doctor of Medicine from U.P. College of Medicine (Class 1985), Residency in Otolaryngology at UP-PGH (1987-1990), Research Fellowship in Otology, Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, (with Joseph B. Nadol, Jr.,MD 1991-1992), Clinical Fellowship in Neurotology-Skull Base Surgery University of Toronto –Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center (with Julian M. Nedzelski, MD 1992-1993) and PhD in Medical Sciences from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands (2011-2013 with Prof. Emeritus Cor Cremers and Prof. Ad Snik ). She currently serves as Research Professor at the NIH and Clinical Professor at UPCM and Attending Otolaryngologist at the Philippine General Hospital, also Immediate Past Director of the Philippine National Ear Institute and Founding Director of the Newborn Hearing Reference Center at the National Institutes of Health in U.P. Manila. She was the president of the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2016. She received numerous awards notably The Solita Camara-Besa Award for Academic Distinction (2016), UPMAS Outstanding Educator Award (2013), The Outstanding Filipino Physician Award (2007), Dangal ng Lipi Award (2008), UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award for Health Promotion and Administration (2015), UP Manila Outstanding Researcher Award (2004) , International Award for Otology (2011) and PSOHNS Outstanding Award for Research and Outstanding Family Award in Otolaryngology (2006, 2015).

Carolina Der
Commissioner
University of Chile

Carolina Der M.D., PhD. Is Head of the “Research Center for Hearing, Senses and Communication” at  Phonoaudiology School, Faculty of Medicine Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. She is chief surgeon of the Hearing Implant Program, Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital JUNAEB (Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolar y Becas), Ministry of Education, Chile and external technical advisor, Ministry of Health, Chile. She is also a staff otolaryngologist at Clínica Alemana de Santiago.

Judy R. Dubno
Commissioner
Medical University of South Carolina

Judy R. Dubno, PhD, has built an extensive research program that has addressed a wide range of key issues pertaining to auditory perception, sensorineural hearing loss, presbycusis, and speech recognition. After earning her PhD in Speech and Hearing Science from the City University of New York Graduate Center, Dr. Dubno completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the UCLA School of Medicine, where she remained as a faculty member for several years. In 1991 she relocated to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina, where she currently is professor and director of research in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Dr. Dubno’s multi-faceted research program on human auditory system function has made long-lasting contributions regarding the encoding of auditory information in simple sounds and speech, as well as how these abilities change in adverse listening conditions, with age, and with hearing loss. In each of these areas, Dr. Dubno has had a significant impact on our fundamental knowledge of auditory perceptual abilities, and on clinical audiologic methods of assessment and rehabilitation. Throughout her career, Dr. Dubno has tackled complex scientific issues with an interdisciplinary approach, including speech perception, psychoacoustics, electrophysiology, and cognitive neuroscience. Her thorough and meticulous approaches have moved the scientific understanding of hearing loss and speech perception forward in a manner that will serve as the basis for many years of future research. Her classic articles on adaptive procedures in measuring speech recognition, published with Dr. Don Dirks, have been widely adopted as standard research and clinical methods.

Finally, Dr. Dubno has generously given her time to the professional and research communities in audiology, through her extensive service on editorial boards, national scientific boards, and NIH review panels. Along with committee service to national scientific societies, she has served as president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology and the Acoustical Society of America, a member of the NIH National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Advisory Council, and currently is Treasurer of the Acoustical Society of America. In 2018, she received the Honors of the Association from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science.

Susan Emmett
Commissioner
Duke University

Susan D. Emmett, MD, MPH is an otolaryngologist and public health expert who develops evidence-based solutions to address preventable hearing loss. She studies novel pathways for prevention and applies digital innovations such as mobile screening and telemedicine to extend access to care to even the most remote communities. Collaboration across disciplines and countries is central to her research, fueling a global effort to address a neglected public health concern.

Dr. Emmett serves as Assistant Professor of Surgery and Global Health at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA. She consults for the World Health Organization and is the Founder and Director of the Global Hearing Loss Evaluation, Advocacy, and Research (HEAR) Collaborative, a multidisciplinary group of collaborators from 28 countries that represents the only international research network dedicated to hearing loss. She spends much of her time in remote communities in northwest Alaska, where she co-leads a randomized trial to address childhood hearing loss funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. While at home in North Carolina, Dr. Emmett provides otologic care to patients with hearing loss and trains the next generation of medical students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows in global hearing health research. She was named a TED Fellow in 2017.

Eric Finkelstein
Commissioner
Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School

Dr. Finkelstein is Professor of Health Services and Systems Research Program at the Duke-NUS Medical School and the Executive Director of the Lien Centre for Palliative Care. He also holds appointments at NUS School of Public Health and Duke University Global Health Institute. His research focuses on the economic causes and consequences of health behaviors, with a primary emphasis on the use of traditional and behavioral economic incentives to influence those behaviors in ways to improve the public’s health. Recent research also focuses on studies to better understand the complicated decisions that revolve around end of life care. He has published over 200 manuscripts and 2 books in these areas. Based on google scholar, he has an h-index of 59 and his publications have been cited over 40,000 times, including in the landmark Supreme Court decision upholding the U.S. Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). He was selected by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds three years running.

Suneela Garg
Commissioner
Maulana Azad Medical College & Associated Hospitals New Delhi

Dr. Garg is the Director Professor & Head of the Department of Community Medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College & Associated Hospitals in New Delhi, India. She has professional and research experience with National and International Organizations including WHO, UNFPA, Population Council and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is a member of the Global Advisory Group of WHO; an advisor to CBM, an international Christian development organization committed to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in the poorest communities of the world; and she contributed to development of WHO modules on strategy development in Ear and Hearing Care. Dr. Garg is also currently Secretary General of the Society for Sound Hearing 2030, a south east initiative of addressing hearing loss.

Ronna Hertzano
Commissioner
University of Maryland

Dr. Hertzano is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology and an affiliate member of the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hertzano’s clinical practice is focused on diseases of the ear and lateral skull base, with a particular interest in hearing restoration and genetic hearing loss. As such, Dr. Hertzano takes care of patients of all ages with hearing loss, diseases of the middle ear, and specifically patients in need of cochlear implants, stapedectomy for otosclerosis, cholesteatoma, tympanic membrane perforations, ossicular chain reconstruction or tumors of the middle ear.

Dr. Hertzano has a strong interest in genetic hearing loss and at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, there are both genetic services for hearing loss as well as an active research protocol for individuals who would like to know the cause of the hearing loss in their family. 

In parallel to her clinical practice, Dr. Hertzano has an active research laboratory. The goal of her research is to make significant contributions towards the prevention and treatment of hearing loss. Some of Dr. Hertzano’s contributions to the field include the identification of the roles of several major regulatory molecules in the development of the inner ear and hair cells (Pou4f3, Gfi1, Zeb1, RFX and Ikzf2), molecular pathways in noise-induced hearing loss and sex differences in hearing. More recently, to facilitate dissemination, sharing and analysis of multi-omic data Dr. Hertzano developed the gEAR portal – gene Expression Analysis Resource (umgear.org).

Dr. Hertzano received her medical and PhD degrees from Tel Aviv University, where she studied the molecular basis of hearing impairment and was the recipient of a Foulkes Foundation Fellowship physician-scientist award. She completed her internship, residency and fellowship in the department of otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hertzano was the recipient of the Triological Society Career Development Grant, Burt Evans Young Investigator Award by the National Organization of Hearing Research, and the Brian E. Emery M.D. Outstanding Teaching Award of the UMSOM Department of Otolaryngology. Dr. Hertzano is a member of the Hearing Restoration Project of the Hearing Health Foundation, a consortium that works collaboratively towards hair cell regeneration.

Mira Johri
Commissioner
University of Montreal

Mira Johri, PhD MPH is Professor in the Department of Health Management, Evaluation and Policy at the University of Montreal, and Principal Scientist at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). Dr. Johri’s research seeks to better understand the social and structural determinants of global child health and to identify innovative approaches to address key challenges limiting children’s potential.

Dr. Johri studied economics, ethics and political philosophy at McGill University, and public health at Yale University. She has served as Consultant in the Department of Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health at the World Health Organization, Geneva, and currently serves as Independent Expert to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Her research has appeared in high-impact journals such as The Lancet and the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Recipient of awards from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations and the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health, She is particularly interested in community-based research and in the potential of community engagement approaches to improve health and development outcomes. Her current work focuses on equitable access to childhood vaccines globally and in India.

Frank Lin
Commissioner
Johns Hopkins

Frank R. Lin, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health and a Professor of Otolaryngology, Medicine, Mental Health, and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Lin completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Brown University and his medical education, residency in ctolaryngology, and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins. He completed further otologic fellowship training in Switzerland. Dr. Lin joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2010 and is a practicing otologist with expertise in the medical and surgical management of hearing loss. His epidemiologic research established the impact of hearing loss on the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and brain aging in older adults and served as the basis of the 2017 Lancet Commission on dementia conclusion that hearing loss was the single largest potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia. He now currently leads the ACHIEVE study which is a $20M NIH-funded randomized trial investigating if treating hearing loss can reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults. As the founder and inaugural director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Dr. Lin leads a first-in-kind research center resulting from an academic-industry collaboration that is dedicated to training a generation of clinicians and researchers to understand and address the impact of hearing loss on older adults and public health.

Dr. Lin has worked extensively with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to address the need for more accessible and affordable hearing care for adults in the United States. From 2014-2016, Dr. Lin served on sequential NASEM committees (workshop, consensus study) investigating this issue and concurrently advised the White House President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on their report. Recommendations from these groups led to the subsequent introduction and bipartisan passage of the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017 which Dr. Lin testified on before Congress. This law overturns 40 years of established regulatory precedent in the U.S. and reflects the direct result of Dr. Lin’s prior research and broader policy work on hearing loss and public health. Dr. Lin currently serves as a member of the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies.   

Isaac Macharia
Commissioner
University of Nairobi

Dr. Macharia is Professor of ENT, Department of Surgery, University of Nairobi, with expertise in children and adult ENT Surgery,  and special interest in Hearing impairment, Sleep medicine, Rhinology, and Laryngology. He is a member of the Kenya Surgical Society, European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, New York Academy of Sciences,  American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Kenya Ear, Nose and Throat society & Kenya Medical Association. He is the founder Chairman of the Cochlear Implant Group of Kenya (CIGOK) and one of only two Kenyan Otologists currently performing cochlear implantation. He has been the technical head of the Technical working group that developed the Kenya National Strategy for Ear and Hearing care and was instrumental in starting the East , Central and Southern Africa Forum for Ear and Hearing Care. He is a past chairman of the Kenya ENT society and was the founding chairman of the Allergy Society of Kenya. He has served as an Executive member of IFOS and also as the IFOS Regional Secretary for Africa and the Middle East. He has also served as a member of various WHO Expert committees on Ear and Hearing Care.  He is a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East , Central and Southern Africa  (COSECSA) and he has over 25 years of experience as an ENT surgeon. He has had international exposure from India, Britain, South Africa, and the USA.

Mark McClellan
Commissioner
Duke University

Dr. McClellan is the Robert J. Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine, and Health Policy, and founding Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. With offices in Durham, NC and Washington, DC, the Duke-Margolis Center is a university-wide, interdisciplinary initiative that is nationally and internationally recognized for its research, evaluation, implementation, and educational initiatives to improve health and health policy. The Center integrates Duke’s expertise in the social, clinical, and analytical sciences with health care leader and stakeholder engagement to develop and apply policy solutions that improve health and the value of health care locally, nationally, and worldwide.

Dr. McClellan is a physician and an economist who has informed and improved a wide range of strategies and policy reforms to advance health care, including payment reform to promote better outcomes and lower costs, methods for development and use of real-world evidence, and strategies for more effective biomedical innovation. Before coming to Duke, he served as a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he was Director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiatives and led the Richard Merkin Initiative on Payment Reform and Clinical Leadership.

With a highly distinguished record in public service and academic research, Dr. McClellan is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. These reforms include the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Medicare and Medicaid payment reforms, the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative, and public-private initiatives to develop better information on the quality and cost of care. He previously served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, senior director for health care policy at the White House, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Department of the Treasury.

Dr. McClellan is the founding chair and a current board member of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), where he chairs the Leadership Council for Value and Science-Driven Health care, co-chairs the guiding committee of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a Senior Advisor on the faculty of the University of Texas Dell Medical School, co-chair of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative, and a member of the Healthtech 4 Medicaid Board of Directors. Dr. McClellan is also an independent director on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Alignment Healthcare, and Seer. He was previously an associate professor of economics and medicine with tenure at Stanford University, and has twice received the Kenneth Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics.

Catherine McMahon
Commissioner
Macquarie University

Professor McMahon is the Director of Audiology and Director of the research centre H:EAR (Hearing, Education, Application, Research) at Macquarie University. She is also the academic co-director of Macquarie University Hearing, a university-wide hearing strategy which aims to transform hearing health locally and globally. Her research centres on understanding the barriers and facilitators to accessing and ultilising hearing healthcare, and the design and implementation of novel care pathways. She is involved in the design and delivery of clinical trials to evaluate new diagnostics and therapies and developing the evidence-base to demonstrate the benefits of interventions. Professor McMahon works closely with the World Health Organisation to develop and collate the evidence-base for the World Report on Hearing, which will be launched in 2020. She was a member of the 12-person Hearing Health Sector Committee that developed the Australian Roadmap of Hearing Health which was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in March 2019.

Gerry O’Donoghue
Commissioner
University of Nottingham

Gerard O’Donoghue qualified in medicine in University College, Cork in Ireland and undertook his otolaryngology training in London and Oxford, undertaking Fellowships at University Hospital in Boston and at the University of California in, San Francisco. He is Professor of Otology and Neurotology at the University of Nottingham and Consultant Neuro-Otologist at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham.

In 1989, he established the Nottingham Cochlear Implant Programme and led many multi-centres studies in the field. He has held a Hunterian Professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1999) and has delivered the Toynbee Memorial Lecture of the Royal Society of Medicine and Royal College of Surgeons of England (2011). He co-founded the British Skull Base Society and is founder member of the European Academy of Otology and Neurotology. He was awarded the Sir William Wilde Medal of the Irish ENT Society (2011), The Brinkman Medal of the University of Nimegen (2009), The Jobson Horne Award of the British Medical Association (2017) and delivered the William House Memorial Lecture of the American Neurotologic Society (2016). In 2008 he co-founded the Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Centre of the National Institute of Health Research and current leads a number of multi-centre clinical trials. He has been President of the Section of Otology, Royal Society of Medicine, London (2014) and is currently Master of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology.

Osondu Ogbuoji
Commissioner
Duke University

Dr. Osondu Ogbuoji is an Assistant Research Professor at Duke Global Health Institute, and the Deputy Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health. His primary research interest is in making health systems work better for everyone, especially people living in poor households. His research projects therefore, explore ways to improve the performance of health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Before joining Duke, Dr. Ogbuoji spent several years working on large scale public health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. During the period, he led the design, implementation, and evaluation of public health interventions including HIV prevention and treatment programs, free healthcare delivery programs, and health systems strengthening programs. His current research projects span several countries including Ghana, India, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. Dr. Ogbuoji holds a Medical Degree (MBBS) from University of Ibadan, a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree and certificate in international health policy and financing from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctor of Science (ScD) in Global Health from Harvard University.

Saowaros Patarapak
Commissioner
Bumrungrad International Hospital

Dr. Saowaros Patarapak is currently Professor, Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok Thailand and the President, The Royal College of Otolaryngologists-Head and Neck Surgery of Thailand (RCOT). In 2018 she also served as the President of The 8th Asia-Pacific Otology/Neurotology Conference hosted by Chulalongkorn University, in cooperation with The Toronto University and UCL (University College London).

Muhammad Pate
Commissioner
World Bank

Muhammad Ali Pate, MD, MBA, MSc. currently serves as Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank, and Director, Global Financing Facility. His previous experience also includes senior level positions in Government, Philanthropy and holds appointment as the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Anne Schilder
Commissioner
University College London

Dr Anne Schilder is Professor of Otorhinolaryngology at the University College London Ear Institute and Director of the National Institute for Health Research UCLH Biomedical Research Centre Hearing Theme. She practices Pediatric ENT at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London. As joint Co-ordinating Editor of Cochrane ENT, NIHR Clinical Research Network Specialty Lead for ENT and Royal College of Surgeons Surgical Research Specialty Lead for ENT, she plays a pivotal role in clinical research in ENT, Hearing and Balance in the UK.

Her research focuses on translation of hearing discoveries into novel treatments for patients with hearing loss. This ranges from designing and delivering first-in-man trials, analysis of routine health data, to health economics and health policy to prepare healthcare systems for the arrival of drug, gene and cell therapies for hearing loss.

She also holds a chair at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, working with primary care researchers on developing evidence-based interventions for otitis media in children. She is a Visiting Professor at Oxford University and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 

Gillian Sanders-Schmidler
Commissioner
Duke University

Gillian Sanders-Schmidler, PhD, is Professor of Population Health Sciences and Medicine at Duke University and Deputy Director of Academics of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. She also directs Duke’s Evidence Synthesis Group and Duke’s Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC). Dr. Sanders-Schmidler received her PhD in Medical Informatics from Stanford and was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford’s Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research from 1998 until the fall of 2003 when she joined the faculty at Duke University. In addition to her leadership role within the Duke-Margolis Center, she is core faculty within the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Sanders-Schmidler’s research focuses on the development of evidence-based decision models to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of alternative prevention, treatment, and management strategies for chronic diseases – and the translation of such models into formats/tools that patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers can use in their decision-making process. Dr. Sanders-Schmidler is Past President of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) and she co-chaired the Second Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine.

George Tavartkiladze
Commissioner
National Research Centre for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation

Director and founder of the National Research Center for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation; Head of the Clinical Audiology department of the Russian Medical Academy for Continuing Professional Education, and an academician of the Russian Medical-Technical Academy. Prof. Tavartkiladze graduated from the Russian State Medical University (Moscow), following which he defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Acoustic impedance measurement and tubosonometry in audiological diagnostics’. In 1987 this was followed by his full doctoral thesis ‘Brainstem and cochlear auditory evoked potentials–normal and affected by various types of hearing loss’

G.A. Tavartkiladze is President of the National Audiological Society of Russia. In 2006-2010 he was elected as President of the International Society of Audiology; in 2006-2007 he served as President of Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS). In 2008 he was elected President of the International Academy for Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. In 2012 he was appointed Secretary-General of the International Society of Audiology.

Professor Tavartkiladze is a member of the American Academy of Audiology, American Auditory Society, European Academy of Otology and Neuro-Otology and other institutions. Since 2004 he has served on the expert board of the World Health Organization. George Tavartkiladze has conducted 8 National Congresses of Audiology, 12 International symposium ‘Modern Problems of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing’, 15 national conferences and seminars. Under his supervision, the prestigious International events took place in Moscow: in 2011 – Symposium of the International Evoked Response Audiometry Study Group (IERASG) and in the 2012 World Congress of Audiology.

Prof. Tavartkiladze is the author of more than 450 works published both in Russian and foreign journals. He is honorary chief editor of Folia Otorhinolaryngologiae et Pathologiae Respiratoriae; editorial board member for the Acta Otolaryngologica, International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, Journal of Hearing Science, Audiology Research and many others.

The bulk of Prof. Tavartkiladze’s research is devoted to issues in experimental and clinical audiology, including mechanisms of primary auditory perception, frequency selectivity of the auditory periphery, micromechanics of the Corti organ via analysis of otoacoustic emissions, development of electrophysiological criteria for diagnosing various types of hearing losses. Among significant interests and outcomes can be counted also the development of universal newborn audiological screening; cochlear implantation; objective measures in cochlear implantation.

Shi-Ming Yang
Commissioner
Chinese PLA General Hospital, Chinese PLA Medical School

Dr. Shiming is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing. He is Head, National Clinical Research Center for Otolaryngology Diseases in China. Dr. Yang is president and editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Otology and Journal of Otology. He is dedicated to constructing the largest auditory implantation center in China and has already gained breakthrough progress in gene and stem cell therapy for deafness.

Fan-Gang Zeng
Commissioner
University of California, Irvine

Fan-Gang Zeng is Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, Cognitive Sciences, Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Director of the Center for Hearing Research at University of California Irvine (2000-present). He is a leader in hearing science and technology, with 268 publications, 13071 citations and an h-index of 54 (Google Scholar, August 8, 2019). He is the Editorial Board Chairman for The Hearing Journal and Advisor for National Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Advisory Council, American Tinnitus Association, Hyperacusis Research, Paris Hearing Institute, Providence Center, and Syntiant Inc. He led the development of the Nurotron 26-electrode cochlear implant (SFDA approval in 2011 and CE Mark in 2012) and SoundCure tinnitus suppressor (FDA clearance and CE Mark in 2011).