The NHCA Narrative: Ted Madison 

By John M Johnson NHCA member

In this narrative, we highlight a conversation with Ted Madison, former NHCA President, former member of the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) and current Course Director for the CAOHC courses offered at the University of Minnesota.

After graduating from the University of Iowa’s Audiology program, Ted started his clinical audiology career in the Veterans Administration. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ted worked in the hearing aid industry, first at Siemens and then at 3M Company, providing technical training and support for audiologists who were fitting some of the first generation of digitally programmable hearing aids. When 3M sold its hearing aid business in 1996, Ted joined the 3M Occupational Health & Safety business, beginning a stellar 27-year career.

Making the leap from diagnosing and rehabilitation of hearing loss to prevention, Ted realized he needed to learn more about his new career path. At 3M, Ted met Rena Glaser, a legendary hearing conservation expert and former NHCA President, who managed the audiology program for 3M worldwide. Ted credits Rena as an early influential adviser. When Ted first approached Rena, he told her “I know a fair amount about this,” and she said, “No you don’t, and what you do know is probably wrong!” “Rena didn’t mince words,” Ted recalls, “I appreciate it now more than I did then.”

At the suggestion of Rena, Ted joined the NHCA around 1997. Rena then introduced Ted to the Who’s Who of the occupational hearing conservation and prevention community. It was there that Ted attended some of the NHCA “Excellence in Hearing Conservation” seminars lead by incredible teachers like Jim Banach, Elliott Berger, and Dennis Driscoll, the bright lights of NHCA at the time. Ted said, “When you attended one of their workshops you came away with a deep understanding of what it takes to run a successful hearing conservation program and why they fail.” Ted says he believes that NHCA’s educational mission is their most important function, “Figuring out ways to keep high-level learning accessible, whether by webinar or conference, is key to the future of the NHCA.”

Although these days Ted is retired from the hearing protection business, he continues to teach CAOHC courses at the Midwest Center for Occupational Health & Safety at the University of Minnesota to appease his affection for teaching hearing conservation. He said, “I love teaching and interacting with people and to be able to provide a helpful source of information for people in the field to meet the challenge of preventing

noise-induced hearing loss.”

Ted has concerns about the recent cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Health & Safety (NIOSH) programs that have provided scientific expertise in hearing loss prevention for over 50 years. Ted says, “The NIOSH-funded Educational Resource Centers (ERCs) have made it possible for thousands of hearing conservationists to become CAOHC-certified over the years.” Ted adds, “Our tax dollars are helping provide occupational safety and health education all around the country. So, if that funding goes away it will be a bigger challenge for people to access those courses.”

Having once worked with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) hearing protection working group (S12 WG11), Ted is familiar with the challenges of predicting how well hearing protection devices (HPDs) perform in the workplace. “The research showing the benefits of HPD fit testing and its growing acceptance in hearing conservation programs is so exciting!” he commented. Ted said that when he was NHCA President 20 years ago, fit-testing systems were barely on the radar. Now, he estimates that as many as 20% of employers use some form of informal or quantitative HPD fit testing. Ted hopes that in 10-15 years it will be unusual not to fit test workers. “That would be success in my mind,” says Ted.