CAA 2025 Speakers

Dr. Beck's professional career began in Los Angeles at the House Ear Institute in cochlear implant research and intraoperative cranial nerve monitoring. In 1988, he joined the medical school faculty as Director of Audiology at Saint Louis University in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. Eight years later he co-founded an audiology and hearing aid dispensing practice in St Louis, Missouri.  In 1999 he became President and Editor-In-Chief of AudiologyOnline.com, SpeechPathology.com and HealthyHearing.com.

Dr. Beck joined Oticon Inc. in August 2005 and 17+ years later, he retired as Vice President of Academic Sciences in March, 2022. Throughout his 17+ years of on-going full-time employment at Oticon, he also served as Web Content Editor for the American Academy of Audiology 2008-2015, Senior Editor for Clinical Research at the Hearing Review from 2016 and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Communication Disorders at the State University of New York, Buffalo (since 2016). In March of 2022, Dr. Beck became the Vice President of Clinical Sciences at Cognivue Inc (Victor, NY). He retired on Jun 30, 2023. Dr. Beck continued to write, lecture, and consult globally for multiple clinical, scientific and other entities. In January 2024, Dr Beck joined The Hearing Matters Podcast (www.hearingmatterspodcast.com) as co-host. In November 2024, Dr. Beck was awarded the Association of Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals (AIHHP) Golden Lobe Recognition Award for Outstanding Service in the United Kingdom. In November 2024, Dr Beck became Senior Director of Audiology Professional Affairs at EssilorLuxottica.

Dr. Beck is among the most prolific authors in audiology with 257+ publications, interviews, and op-eds written for the AAA, Hearing Review, Audiology Online, The Hearing Journal, the Journal of Otolaryngology ENT Research, and other professional publications addressing a wide variety of audiology, clinical, academic and professional topics including; Op-Eds, audiology, language, pediatrics, cognition, cognitive screeners, hearing aids, amplification, vision, psychology, neuroscience, anatomy and physiology, counseling and more. Dr. Beck is a sought after lecturer globally and has presented more than 1000 lectures, keynote addresses, webinars and other professional presentations.

Nick has been a lobbyist at Sacramento Advocates since 2016. Before that, he was a practicing attorney and litigator at the Los Angeles office of an international law firm. Nick has also served as a political strategist and consultant for a tribal nation, where he represented the tribe on political, public policy and grassroots issues at the local, state and federal level. He has also worked on statewide and federal campaigns.

A second generation lobbyist, Nick’s entry into state politics traces back to 2006, when he wrote for Capitol Weekly, a non-partisan news publication covering California government and politics. Nick holds undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Sport Management from UC Santa Barbara, where he graduated summa cum laude. He holds a law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he served as the Editor-In-Chief of a law review, Vice President of the law school’s chapter of the American Constitution Society, and co-founded a national law conference that continues to this day.

He is an active member of the State Bar of California.

Dr. Burdick’s passion for providing care to the veteran wherever they are significantly contributes to her program’s success and perfectly aligns with the VA mission to improve access to care. She obtained her Doctor of Audiology (Au.D) degree from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ and her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Speech and Hearing Science from the University of Arizona.

Dr. DeBacker's lab investigates the impacts of HIV and cancer medications on the auditory and balance systems, with a particular focus on the use of AI and machine learning tools to predict and prevent hearing losses. He is also the founder of the LGBTQ+ affinity group Queer Empowerment for Audiologists, Researchers, and Students (QuEARS). Riley is an active volunteer with the American Academy of Audiology and several local, national, and international organizations.

Prior to joining the faculty at SDSU, Dr. Dreisbach completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where her research focused on psychoacoustic measurements in normal- and hearing-impaired listeners. She is the director of the Auditory Physiology and Psychoacoustics Laboratory where her research entails characterizing peripheral auditory function to extended-high frequency stimuli using objective measures (otoacoustic emissions) in pediatric and young adult listeners.  One focus of this research is to establish the reliability of varied otoacoustic emission measurements for the purpose of monitoring populations exposed to ototoxic agents (e.g., noise and medications). Recently, she has explored other ototoxic insults (jet-fuel and noise exposures) influence on the central auditory nervous system utilizing subjective questionnaires of handicap and will continue this work employing objective measures as well.

He subsequently completed a Ph.D. at Northwestern University in Communication Disorders with Dr. Beverly Wright exploring patterns of perceptual learning in individuals with normal hearing. Upon completion of his doctorate, Dr. Fitzgerald moved to the New York University School of Medicine for a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Otolaryngology. There, he worked with Dr. Mario Svirsky to identify recipients of cochlear implants who have not yet fully adapted to their device, and to provide tools which audiologists could use to modify the map to help these patients. He later joined the faculty at NYU, and also at Montclair State University. In 2015, Dr. Fizgerald became the Chief of Audiology at Stanford, where he oversees the Audiology departments of both Stanford Hospital and the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital.

He joined Audiology Clinic, Inc. in Vancouver, WA in 2008, and then purchased it in 2012. Within 4 years, he had almost tripled their business. He sold the practice in 2017, and moved to Los Angeles, where he joined West Valley Hearing Center partnering to grow the practice. Dr. Gosalia was awarded Distinguished Fellow by the National Academies of Practice (NAP), Board Certified by the American Board of Audiology (ABA) and is a member of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) and the California Academy of Audiology (CAA). He is the owner/CEO of the AudBoss Private Practice Group and Summits, co-Founder of Phoenix Audiology, CEO of DrGosalia, LLC, and was the Mentor for the Ambassador for the Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) in California. He served a 3-year term on the Board of Directors for the ABA in 2012-2015 and has served as Chair of the AAA Marketing sub-committee and the Public Awareness Committee. He was recently recognized for his contributions to the audiology profession with the Clinical Excellence in Audiology Award by the American Academy of Audiology in 2024. As a public speaker he often speaks at international, national and state organizations, podcasts, local news stations along with many CME presentations to physician groups and organizations. He is passionate leader for audiology and is always looking to help audiologists and students grow!

She is the owner of Valley Audiology, a private practice with two offices in the San Francisco East Bay Area.  Dr. Kjeldsen is a past president of the California Academy of Audiology and has held various positions on the Board of Directors of CAA.  She is passionate about improving her patient’s lives through delivering high quality patient care and about ensuring a viable professional future for audiologists in California.

Dr. Sanders earned a Doctor of Audiology degree from Salus University in Pennsylvania in 2007 and Master's Degree in Audiology from Sacramento State in 2003. Dr. Sanders has been Supervisory Audiologist for the Veterans Health Administration, Northern California Region since 2022. He is a member of the CAA, AAA, and ASHA. Dr. Sanders has been a Dispensing Audiologist in California since 2003.

Dr. White earned a Doctor of Audiology degree from Utah State University. She is a member of CAA, AAA, and ASHA. Dr. White has been Service Chief for Audiology and Speech–Language Pathology for the Veterans Health Administration, Northern California Region since 2021. She has been a licensed Audiologist in California since 2008.

Dr. Zhang's recent research has focused on the cochlear immune response to age-related, noise-induced, and genetic hearing loss. More recently, she has been investigating sex differences in auditory function in mouse models and in humans. She aims to leverage her expertise in basic science research to conduct clinical studies that bridge the gap between patient needs and treatment development.