René H. Gifford, Ph.D., CCC-A is joining Hearts for Hearing in Oklahoma as Chief of Research and Audiology beginning January 2025. Gifford currently holds the Fred H. Bess Chair in Audiology, is a tenured Professor of Hearing & Speech Sciences, and Director of the Implantables, Hearing Enhancement, & Amplification Research (I HEAR) Laboratory at Vanderbilt University in the School of Medicine. “We are thrilled to have a hearing healthcare expert of Dr. Gifford’s stature bring her significant talents and leadership to Hearts for Hearing,” says Jennifer Burton, President and CEO, who adds, “She is choosing to join one of the country’s largest teams of audiologists, researchers, and Listening and Spoken Language Specialists at Hearts for Hearing who are providing advanced hearing care to more than 40,000 patients each year.”
Hearts for Hearing is recognized across the country for its dedication to teaching deaf babies and children to listen and talk and their comprehensive adult clinic services, ensuring that all patients achieve their best hearing and communication potential. “I am thrilled to make this move to Hearts for Hearing,” says Gifford, “I never thought I’d leave the university medical setting, but the opportunity to join Hearts for Hearing as Chief of Research & Audiology was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I wasn’t going to miss! Hearts for Hearing is a truly special place – it’s our field’s best example of how integrating cutting-edge research into clinical practice can directly enhance patient outcomes across hearing, balance, speech, and language. It’s an exciting time of rapid advances in hearing technology and scientific discovery—and just like the entire Hearts for Hearing team, I am committed to staying in front.”
Gifford’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over 20 years, she’s delivered 100s of invited talks around the world, published over 160 peer-reviewed articles, multiple book chapters, two textbooks, and enjoyed a distinguished career at Vanderbilt actively involved in teaching, research, clinic leadership, clinical practice, and graduate student mentorship. Gifford has received multiple awards and honors for her clinical research includingthe 2015 Louis M. DiCarlo Award for Recent Clinical Achievement from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2017 Vanderbilt University Chancellor’s Award for Research, the 2021 Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology from the American Academy of Audiology, and she was a featured scientist on the National Public Radio Science Fridaybroadcast entitled Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science – Hearing a Whole New World.
Gifford will complete the Fall semester at Vanderbilt before joining the team in Oklahoma.
About Hearts for Hearing –
Hearts for Hearing is a comprehensive hearing health care clinic for children and adults headquartered in Oklahoma City, with offices in Tulsa and Norman, and includes a state-of-the-art Mobile Care Clinic. The organization was founded in 2003 as a 501(c)3 to provide funding for the first set of hearing aids for children with hearing loss in Oklahoma. Its mission has expanded significantly to become one of the leading hearing health care centers in the country offering audiology, speech-language therapy, and leading-edge research in age ranges from newborn to senior adults. Its collaborative model appointments pairing audiologists and speech-language pathologists working together helps enable the best outcomes for its patients. Learn more at www.heartsforhearing.org.
