Principal Investigator
Linda J. Hood, PhD
Dr. Hoois a professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences and the Associate Director for Research at the National Center for Childhood Deafness and Family Communication at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She received a master's degree in audiology from Kent State University and a PhD in hearing science from the University of Maryland. Dr. Hood completed an NIH post-doctoral fellowship and was a faculty member at the Kresge Hearing Research Laboratory at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans for 23 years. Her research and clinical interests include auditory physiologic responses, efferent auditory function, hereditary hearing loss, auditory neuropathy/dys-synchrony, central auditory processing, development of hearing, aging of the auditory system, cochlear implants, and comparative hearing studies. In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Hood has participated in several review and working groups for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, is a past president of the American Academy of Audiology, a trustee of the American Academy of Audiology Foundation, and a current member of the board of the American Auditory Society.
Research Audiologist
Lauren Roberts, AuD, CCC-A
Dr. Roberts has been an audiologist at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center since 2007. She received her BA from The Ohio State University and her AuD from the University of Akron. Dr. Roberts specializes in newborn hearing screening, pediatric amplification, ototoxicity, and pediatric diagnostic testing with special interest in auditory brainstem response testing. Dr. Roberts developed and coordinated the Ototoxicity Monitoring Program and served as the Assistant Director for Audiology at the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. She is a member of the Vanderbilt Auditory Neuropathy Team. Dr. Roberts has presented at local, state, and national venues. In December 2014, Dr. Roberts joined Dr. Hood in the Auditory Physiology Research Lab as a research audiologist.
Research Audiologist
Sarah Powell, AuD, PhD
Dr. Powell is a research audiologist at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center. She received her BA, AuD and PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Powell's research interests include effects of environmental factors (e.g. noise exposure and auditory training) on behavioral and physiologic measures of auditory function, especially in individuals with clinically "normal" audiograms. In 2016, she completed an NIH NIDCD T-35 Research Traineeship in Dr. Hood's Auditory Physiology Lab and has presented her research at several national conferences. Dr. Powell completed her AuD externship at the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Her clinical interests include adult diagnostics and amplification. She has served on professional organization education committees, teaches as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, and enjoys mentoring students. Dr. Powell returned to Vanderbilt to join the lab in October 2021 as a research audiologist.
Research Audiologist
Diana Kloiber, AuD
Dr. Kloiber has been an audiologist at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center since 2013. She received her Bachelor of Science and Doctorate of Audiology from Purdue University. Dr. Kloiber specializes in pediatric amplification and pediatric diagnostic testing and is lead amplification audiologist for the patients with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Dr. Kloiber joined Dr. Hood in the Auditory Physiology Research Lab as a research audiologist in the summer of 2021.
Research Assistant
Janice Creel
Janice moved to Nashville from Panama City, Fla. in 2013. She joined the Hood Lab in March of 2014. She collects and enters data for research purposes with the goal of utilizing audiologic, genetic and otolaryngologic information to study rare disorders affecting auditory and vestibular function.