The Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery is pleased to announce the 2023/2024 recipient of the Richard D. Wyant Endowed Award in Audiology, Ana Sanchez!
Ana is a promising second year student in CU Boulder’s Audiology program. Ana is a first generation Hispanic/Latina woman who has a physical and mental disability. Regardless of these conditions, Ana is doing exceptionally well in her doctoral studies and is highly committed to improving access to hearing health in underserved populations. As part of her diversity initiative, Ana wants to work on offering education about hearing loss and providing clinical hearing screenings in minority neighborhoods in the Denver/Front Range area. She will supervise Audiology undergraduate students and first year AuD graduate students who volunteer to conduct the screenings. Given her fluency in Spanish, Ana will be able to counsel patients who may not pass the screenings and refer them to UCH or other appropriate clinics. She will also inform them about possibilities for participating in a joint research project between CU Boulder and Anschutz campuses where participants will be eligible to receive free hearing tests, cognitive screenings and hearing aids at no cost for a year.
Ana is a key member of Dr. Anu Sharma’s laboratory at CU Boulder. Dr. Sharma wrote in her recommendation letter that “Given Ana’s maturity, enthusiasm, focus, hardwork and discipline, I fully expect that Ana will be successful in her proposed initiatives. She expects to present the results of her initiative at State and National Audiology conferences, thereby highlighting the important work being done as part of the Richard D. Wyant Award.”
On hearing the news about this award, Ana says "I am honored to have been awarded the Richard D. Wyant Endowed Award in Audiology. I would like to thank all my professors and preceptors who have guided, mentored, and provided me with support throughout my education so far. I would not be where I am without you all. As a hearing screener at multiple school districts, I know firsthand the importance of early detection and determining who is at risk of developing a hearing loss. With my initiative I want to focus more on the adult population. Primarily working with underrepresented minorities in the Denver and Front Range area. On top of educating and providing hearing screenings, I want to incorporate cognitive screenings (MoCA). As we all know there is a correlation between cognitive decline and hearing loss. Although the link is not well understood yet, I believe as future audiologists we should be looking at our patients as a whole and not solely their hearing thresholds. Advocating and encouraging patients to seek help with other specialists/providers sooner rather than later is important for me. I look forward to working with my peers, Dr. Sharma, Dr. Manchaiah, and the individuals I will encounter through the screenings. Thank you. "
Ana’s commitment to working with underrepresented populations will have a great impact on our community and beyond. Congratulations, Ana!
The endowment was made possible by a generous gift from Mr. Richard Wyant with matching support from the Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery in the School of Medicine located on the Anschutz Medical Campus.