Hall leads speech pathologists, audiologists in cutting-edge patient care

James “Jay” Hall III, Ph.D., stumbled upon his career path almost by accident.

Although Hall, chairman of the department of communicative disorders in the College of Public Health and Health Professions, is considered an international leader in audiology and is the author of a book that is considered a standard industry resource, he may not have found his way to an audiology career if not for a set of chance circumstances.

After completing a bachelor’s degree in biology from American International College in Springfield, Mass., Hall searched for a health profession that matched his interests. As the son and grandson of optometrists, Hall’s family expected him to follow in those footsteps, but optometry didn’t appeal to him in the same way.

When his wife, Missy, started exploring the field of speech pathology, Hall decided to follow suit and apply for scholarships in that area. In what he calls one of the best breaks of his career, he received full tuition and a stipend from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., which then boasted, Hall soon discovered, the country’s number one graduate program in speech pathology and audiology.

Hall made another discovery while at Northwestern.

“I took my first class in audiology and I knew this was it,” he said. “Audiology combines all the features I was looking for in a health profession. There are opportunities for clinical, research and educational work, it is a relatively new profession, you work with patients of all ages, and audiologists are in great demand.”

Following the completion of his master’s degree in speech pathology, Hall experienced his next big break. Having decided that he wanted to live in Texas because of its warm climate, Hall asked a Northwestern faculty member to recommend someone he could contact for a job in Texas. He was referred to James Jerger, Ph.D., described by Hall as the world leader of audiology.

“In my role as director of the audiology and speech pathology services of The Methodist Hospital in Houston, I hired Jay as a speech pathologist,” said Jerger, now the director of the Texas Auditory Processing Disorder Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas. “Shortly thereafter, our census of speech patients declined to the point where there weren’t enough patients to keep everyone busy. So I suggested to Jay that he might enjoy working with the audiology patients for a while. This worked out so well that Jay decided to go ahead with a doctoral program in audiology at Baylor College of Medicine. He was a wonderful student and one of the hardest workers I have mentored.”

Hall went on to serve in academic and clinical director positions at the University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas and Vanderbilt University, arriving at the University of Florida in 2000. Here, he leads a department of audiologists and speech pathologists who treat 15,000 patients a year in the UF Speech and Hearing Center, educate hundreds of students and support the department’s burgeoning research program.

“Our department has an international reputation for providing state-of-the-art clinical services,” Hall said. “All of our senior faculty members are internationally known as clinical scholars. That provides the foundation for a strong academic program.”

The department’s distance learning doctor in audiology program, a joint program with the communication sciences and disorders department in the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is the biggest and, in many people’s opinions, best doctor of audiology program in the country, Hall said. The department also is closely involved in the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ rehabilitation science degree program, with faculty members teaching and mentoring students in the communication neuroscience track.

“Research is the least developed of the department’s three missions,” Hall said. “Historically, the department’s emphasis has been on clinical work; we are currently working to expand research activities. Faculty members now have more research funding than ever before, and all new faculty recruits have research funding or research potential.”

Hall’s own research interests include auditory electrophysiology, the evaluation of auditory function through recorded responses from the brain. This method is especially successful when assessing the hearing of people who can’t communicate their responses to testers, such as newborns, Hall said. His book on the technique, “Handbook of Auditory Evoked Responses,” is considered a standard resource for audiologists.

Additionally, Hall’s research focuses on treatments for tinnitus, the occurrence of sound such as ringing or whistling in a person’s ears when there are no external sounds present. Although the causes of tinnitus aren’t well understood, the condition affects millions of Americans each year.

Hall’s work on how the brain processes sound involves the development of techniques for evaluating and treating school-age children with auditory processing disorders. Because these children may have difficulty following teachers’ instructions and reading assignments, they routinely perform poorly in school.

“The main theme of my research is the underserved patient population,” he said.

Hall will have more time for research and clinical work when he steps down from the chairmanship role in June to serve as the department’s chief of audiology. While he admits he is less passionate about administrative duties than working with patients, he is proud of the department restructuring he has spearheaded as chairman.

“Our department had quickly grown from only a few faculty members to a full academic department, and it needed reorganization to reflect this growth,” Hall said.

The communicative disorders department now consists of two separate divisions — speech pathology and audiology — and each is led by a clinical chief. An executive council also provides leadership and is involved in administrative decisions. In addition, the department’s budget has been revamped to a cost accounting system that makes each person accountable.

“Everyone knows where the money is coming from and where it’s going,” Hall said.

Hall is gratified by the fact that he has impacted clinical services and audiology education through his books, lectures, articles and work with students.

“I’m also proud that over the past 25 years I have been able to maintain one or two days a week for clinic work, and I’ve had a direct impact on the lives of my patients,” he said. “In some cases you are changing lives, such as helping tinnitus patients who are threatening suicide or diagnosing young children with hearing problems who without treatment are statistically more likely to never graduate from high school or find steady employment.”

While Hall confesses he spends more time at work than he should, free time is devoted to family and traveling. Wife Missy is a special education teacher at Kanapaha Middle School; son Jay is a UF graduate student in wildlife biology; son Austin is a U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and daughter Victoria is enrolled in the dual program at Buchholz High School and Santa Fe Community College.