The NHCA Narrative: Colleen Le PrellWhen Colleen Le Prell first found the NHCA, she was already a respected basic scientist, internationally known for her work on mechanisms of noise injury and prevention of NIHL using experimental therapies that interrupt cell death events. At that time, she was engaged in the design and conduct of clinical trials on NIHL prevention. Despite her immersion in the world of noise injury and its prevention, she had never heard of NHCA. In her own words, “I randomly happened on the NHCA meeting while doing a search on "noise-induced hearing loss" one day over lunch. Frankly, I thought it was ridiculously overpriced and almost did not go, but in the end, since it was an easy (two-hour) drive and only a couple nights of hotel, I went ahead and registered to see if the meeting was interesting or helpful. Obviously, it was of great value to me as I have attended every year since.” Colleen quickly became an NHCA leader as the Conference Program Chair, Director of Education, editor of NHCA's annual International Journal of Audiology Supplement, and then President of NHCA. Dr. Le Prell says, “I joined NHCA and it connected me to a network of clinicians, scientists, and other experts. Attending NHCA conference changed my understanding of real-world challenges in hearing loss prevention, and continues to provide opportunities to collaborate with members of this expert community on best practice documents and new research initiatives that will hopefully one day help decrease the incidence of NIHL. The diverse stakeholders within NHCA make this a key meeting that I cannot miss.” |