2016 Conference

Jessie Minnes is the Product Support and Education Specialist at Sivantos Inc. Jessie is also a Hearing Instrument Specialist and graduate from George Brown College.

Jessie will be discussing “Effortless Listening with primax” the new and exciting things coming out with our new platform.

Jeff Malpass is the President & CEO at Sivantos Inc. Jeff has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors with a proven track record of industry-leading profitable. His experience hasgiven him a leadership style based on a results-oriented approach with the ability to motivate, inspire and align individuals and teams to a common goal.

Samira Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland. After practicing as a clinical audiologist for 26 years, she decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree in Auditory Neuroscience at Northwestern University to better understand the hearing difficulties experienced by her patients. She obtained her PhD. in December of 2012 and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland in January of 2013. Dr. Anderson’s research focuses on the effects of development, aging, and hearing loss on central auditory processing and neuroplasticity, using electrophysiology as her primary assessment tool. She is currently using auditory evoked potentials to evaluate the effects of hearing aid amplification.

Title: Effects of aging, hearing loss, and amplification on neural speech encoding

Although hearing aid technology has improved dramatically, many people continue to express dissatisfaction with hearing aids. One possibility for this dissatisfaction is that aging and hearing loss may impair the central auditory system’s ability to accurately encode sound, and amplification may not compensate for these changes. This presentation will discuss how evoked potential measurements may be used to inform us of the effects of amplification on the precision of neural speech encoding at the time of fitting and to document neuroplastic changes over time.

Grand River Hearing & Tinnitus Centre: Audiologist and Owner

Conestoga College: Hearing Instrument Specialist Program Coordinator and Faculty Member

Calvin Staples has been an Audiologist for nearly 15 years. His experience has been both clinical and academic. He spent 3 years at Chedoke-McMaster Hospital in Hamilton working as a clinical audiologist seeing both children and adult patients, followed by 5 years as the educational audiologist at Bernafon Canada Ltd; a Swiss-based hearing aid manufacturer. The experience as an educator prompted him to pursue the teaching position at Conestoga College. He currently teaches and directs the Hearing Instrument program at Conestoga College. He also owns two hearing clinics (Grand River Hearing & Tinnitus Centre); his clinics are focused on helping those with hearing impairments maximize their use of hearing aids and to help restore effective communication. Additionally, he is trained in Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, which is designed to help Tinnitus sufferers habituate and cope with their tinnitus. Calvin is focused on using hearing healthcare technology to help his patients obtain the maximum return on their investment in his businesses. He believes in an evidenced-informed patient-centred approach to hearing health care.

Calvin will be discussing “Hearing aid technology and real-ear measures” focusing on the importance of verification to ensure optimal patient benefit.

Ted Clegg

ALDS was founded by Dr. Charles Laszlo in 1991 as a company specializing in unique products for the hearing impaired.
The company was then purchased in 2008 by Don Clegg who, due to hearing loss from a young child, became interested in assistive devices late in his life that helped him hear in many different daily living situations.

In late 2011 Don’s son; Ted and family returned to Canada from Australia to assist Don in running ALDS. Don has since retired and Ted along with his wife and children now manage and run the business.

Ted has been passionate his whole working career about not just selling a product to someone but finding out what meets his clients’ needs. This is what he loves about working with products for the hearing and voice impaired. It is all about finding the right solution to fulfill a person’s need.

Ted will be discussing ALD’s and the 5 W’s (and an H)
Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of assistive devices
Their importance to both hearing professionals & more importantly hearing aid wearers

Daniel Paccioretti is the Western Canada Roger Sales Manager at Phonak Communications AG. Dan has worked for Phonak for 10 years.

Dan will be discussing Pediatrics and Roger.

A representative from Unitron is going to grace us with a brief presentation on the Unitron product.

Karen is the Chief Executive Officer with the Better Business Bureau of Saskatchewan Inc.
Karen currently serves as the President of SATA (Saskatchewan Administrative Tribunal Association) and is the Saskatchewan Representative Board Member of CCAT (Canadian Council of Administrative Tribunals).

Karen Smith was the employer representative on the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board’s (WCB) Board of Directors from June 2005 to July 2015. Karen served on the Audit Committee, Investment Committee and the Board Appeal Tribunal.

Her professional background includes Director of Employee Benefit Plans for the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. Karen’s activity in the business community includes serving as the employer representative on the WCB’s former Early Intervention Program Advisory Committee and as a member of the Human Resources Committee for the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce. Previously carried the CHRP designation in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Karen is a former board member of the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency and of several community organizations, a former member of council for the Village of Buena Vista and a life member of PARCS (Provincial Association of Resort Communities of Saskatchewan).
Karen will be discussing effective communication of contracts and service expectations as well as typical pitfalls in this realm.

Deborah Lane is a Calgary psychologist that works with tinnitus clients and offers unique perspectives and insights into managing the condition.

Services include 30 + years experience in:

Adult Individual Assessment and Therapy for depression, anxiety, trauma and PTSD, family of origin, stress, inner child/spirit work, self esteem, boundaries and assertiveness. Couple Assessment and Therapy for communication skills and conflict resolution.

Health Psychology counselling and workshops for chronic illness, pain, injury, adjusting to diagnosis and preparing for surgery. Special interest in Mind Body medicine, medical intuition, meditation, medical Qi Gong and practicing an integrative holistic approach to healing the mind, body and spirit.

Development of Tinnitus Specialty Programs that include: 2 day Tinnitus Management Workshop, Tinnitus Screening Clinic, Tinnitus Management Modules (online), Tinnitus Management consultation via phone, Skype or FaceTime to people without resources, professional training and presentations, guest speaker, author of tinnitus articles and other tinnitus related goals.

As of August, 2015, I successfully completed a distant study program from the Chopra Center for Well-Being in Carlsbad, CA under the direction of Dr. Deepak Chopra. I am a Certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Instructor, having learned in depth and practical approaches to facilitate mind, body and spiritual healing using the principles of Ayurveda. I have an intention to integrate this wisdom into my work with my clients who have health challenges and those who want to expand their experience of vitality and wellbeing.

My excitement is in knowing the personal value of these principles as well as the way it empowers others on their journey toward health and healing. This training allows me to to teach a five series lesson process on mind-body healing using the principles of Ayurveda. Combining my expertise and experience over 30+ years with these teachings will enhance my work with those on a path of healing. My goal would be to collaborate with other practitioners to support the healing of those we treat using a holistic model of care.

Please visit my website at www.soulspringcounselling.com for my current practice.

Unique specialization and expertise in Tinnitus Management. Please visit website at: www.hopefortinnitus.com

Deborah will be discussing Tinnitus Management.