To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Audiology programs, we asked alumni, faculty, and students about their reflections on the program. Here is what they had to say:
Emily McMahan, AuD ‘13
I chose Salus University's Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) because I wanted to be in one of the biomed programs for audiology, and that was one of them at the time. So that was one of my first choices was being in a biomed program rather than more of the traditional grad program. I was excited to have been able to apply, get accepted, and then be able to make that happen.
When you're looking for audiology versus the optometry side, I was just applying for biomed programs. I wanted to be in a biomed program versus a non-biomed. I got into a couple of programs, but Philadelphia made more sense financially and personally. And Salus fit that bill.
I had a couple classmates while I was in school that I talked to, and I still speak to them on a regular basis, so it's always nice to figure out what conferences we'll be at and getting to touch base with each other in and out of conferences. At this point, we've now watched each other have families grow, build practices, and expand. While I may not see some of those lifelong friends every day now, I know that they're a phone call or a text away. It's just been nice to be able to see over the past 10 years, those relationships continue to grow and bloom.
We were the biggest class at the time, and we were super close. But within our larger group we had lots of smaller close groups. The ones that I was really close with during my time at Salus, very thankfully, we still speak on a regular basis. I still talk to them and see them, which is nice because we live all across the country from each other. Those have been valuable friendships, both personally but also professionally. It's just nice that we've all figured out a way to make them work despite our vast geographic differences.
I know the faculty has changed since I was there to some degree. I have some maintained friendships at this point, but now they've turned into colleagues and friendships, Jonette Owen, AuD ‘03, MHA, FNAP, Ch-A, Radhika Aravamudhan, PhD, EdD, and Bre Myers, AuD ‘06, PhD ‘17, CH-AP. Those were all professors that I enjoyed having both as clinical providers, whether it be in or in the classroom, and those are several of the professors that then, later I look forward to seeing at conferences or we get to spend time and catch up. I now get to look at them as colleagues, and it's been really nice to see some of those transitions happen.
I had rotations from the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs and from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in addition to leading private practices within different areas. Being in an area that had a really rich clinical experience, we provided different biomedical as well as our traditional audiology courses. Then also having a school that supported us in doing extra or attending conferences and being allowed to get involved in those things really just helped shape that.
I've been very involved at a national level within audiology for different organizations since I graduated. I think just being in a program that was supportive and encouraging of us being involved at not just your individual practice level or your individual community level, but encouraging us to further that national organization involvement, has really been beneficial. That just kind of reiterated what we learned while we were receiving our education in OCA.
I started a private practice nine years ago and I now have two physical locations. I’m licensed in 14 states across the country. I see tinnitus patients all across the country, including internationally at this point. It's fun. A significant portion of my practice is via telemedicine. I still have physical in-person patients, but you never know literally where I am, who I'm talking to, what state do they live in, what country do they live in as they come to see me from all across the world at this point for my work in tinnitus.
Dr. McMahan is now leading groundbreaking tinnitus research. She is part of the first real-world analysis of U.S. patients treated with Lenire, the only FDA-approved bimodal neuromodulation treatment device for tinnitus. Click here to read more.
