Donna Sorkin is executive of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance, a national organization devoted to expanding access to cochlear implantation. She has had a long career in advocacy for people with hearing loss at for-profit and non-profit entities. She was previously executive director of two organizations: Hearing Loss Association of America and AG Bell Association. Ms. Sorkin served for 11 years as Vice President, Consumer Affairs at Cochlear Americas where she led public policy and other initiatives aimed at the broad life needs of cochlear implant users including insurance, (re)habilitation, and educational needs of children with cochlear implants. She has served on federal, corporate and university boards including the U.S. Access Board (as a Presidential appointee) and the National Institute on Deafness, NIH Advisory Board. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of Gallaudet University. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

René H. Gifford, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Otolaryngology. She is the Director of the Cochlear Implant Program at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center in the Division of Audiology and the Cochlear Implant Research Laboratory. Her NIH-funded research investigates psychophysical auditory function and spatial hearing for individuals using combined electric and acoustic stimulation (EAS), hearing preservation with cochlear implantation and speech perception for adults and children with cochlear implants. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and authored a book in 2013 entitled “Cochlear Implant Patient Assessment: Evaluation of Candidacy, Performance, and Outcomes.” She was also the 2015 recipient of the ASHA Louis M. DiCarlo Award for Recent Clinical Achievement as well as the 2017 recipient of the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research, both awarded for her work following hearing preservation cochlear implantation.

Casey Stach Au.D., is a cochlear implant audiologist at the University of Michigan. She has worked with adult and pediatric cochlear implant patients on various cochlear implant programs for the past 28 years. Her research areas of interest include cochlear implant device reliability and preservation of hearing following cochlear implantation. Dr. Stach has presented and published in the area of cochlear implants at the local and national level.