Dr. Fred H. Bess This is Me

Education

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1. 1. Plural Publishing - Fred Bess, Ph.D.

   www.pluralpublishing.com/Fred_ - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/31/2008   Last Visited: 3/31/2008

   Fred H. Bess, Ph.D. Plural Publishing - Fred Bess, Ph.D.
   
   Plural Publishing
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   Fred Bess, Ph.D.
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   Fred Bess, Ph.D. Fred H. Bess is Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences and served as Director of the former Bill Wilkerson Center from 1978 until its merger with Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1997. He is also Professor of Audiology and Chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt. The Department grants Master's and Doctoral degrees in Speech/Language Pathology and Audiology.
   
   Dr. Bess completed his undergraduate education at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, his Master's at Vanderbilt University, and his Ph.D. in Audiology at the University of Michigan. In 1969, he initiated and directed the Audiology Program at Central Michigan University, where he remained until joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1976. He is the author of well over a hundred and fifty journal articles, book chapters, monographs and books dealing with hearing and hearing impairment. Also numbering over one hundred are professional papers presented at scholarly meetings throughout the country. He has been principal investigator or project director for several million dollars in privately and federally funded research, training and demonstration grants. In addition, Dr. Bess has served as chairperson for seven symposia, which attracted international participation.
   
   Dr. Bess holds membership in several professional and learned societies. In 1976, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and in 1984, named a Distinguished Alumnus by Carthage College. The New York League for the Hard of Hearing conferred on Dr. Bess the 1986 Harris M. Jonas Award in Audiology for contributions to the advancement of hearing health care and rehabilitation. In 1992, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation bestowed upon him their prestigious Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Career Award. He is a Charter Member of the American Academy of Audiology and served as its president in 1990. In 1999, Dr. Bess was awarded the Honors of the Association by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Frederick S. Berg Educational Audiology Award by the Educational Audiology Association; in 2002, he was awarded the Honors of the Tennessee Association for Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists, for his contributions to children with communication disorders; and in 2003, he was awarded the Dorothy Dreyer Award for Volunteerism by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
   
   Dr. Bess' recent research interests include minimal hearing loss in children, auditory characteristics of children with autism, and auditory rehabilitation for the elderly.

2. 2. 1999 Honors of the Association

   www.asha.org/about/leadership- - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/6/2008   Last Visited: 4/20/2008

   Fred H. Bess
   
   Fred H. Bess, professor and chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University, has been, throughout his 30 years in audiology, "a builderâ€"of programs, of ideas, of science, of service, of people," says Robert T. Wertz of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Nashville.
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   Bess developed the Central Michigan University Audiology Program and the Saginaw Valley (Michigan) Hearing Clinic and later became director of the Bill Wilkerson Center and chair of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt. In 1997, Bess successfully negotiated the merger of the Bill Wilkerson Center and the Vanderbilt Medical Center to form the Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences.
   
   Bess's research has been funded consistently for the past 30 years. His work, early in his career, on noise-induced hearing loss, led to identification and prevention efforts; his research into hearing health care for older people has resulted in improved services; and it was not until Bess and his group challenged the long-held belief that children with minimal hearing loss could progress with limited support or only preferential classroom seating that policy changes occurred that allowed this previously neglected population to gain access to services. Bess's work has also resulted in 18 books and monographs and 120 chapters and journal articles as well as 250 presentations to national and international professional audiences.
   
   Bess (BA, Carthage College; MA, Vanderbilt University; PhD, University of Michigan) has served ASHA long and well on the Subcommittee on Special Services, Regional Conferences, and Audiology Planning; the Clinical Fellowship Year Committee; on four Convention Program Committees; and on the Committee on Infant Hearing. He is currently serving on the ASHA Scientific and Professional Practices Board and, since 1975, has been an Educational Training Board Site Visitor. He is also the Audiology Program Chair for the 2001 ASHA Convention.
   
   For his impressive body of work, Bess has received two Achievement Awards from Central Michigan University. He is an ASHA Fellow as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology, the Academy of Dispensing Audiologists, and the Society of Ear, Nose, and Throat Advances in Children. He is the recipient of the DiCarlo Award for Outstanding Clinical Achievement for the State of Tennessee, the Harris M. Jonas Award in Audiology from the New York League for the Hard of Hearing, and the Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Career Award from the ASHA Foundation.
   
   As well as being the quintessential clinician/scholar, Bess is also a mentor par excellence.
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   Finally, Gravel says, in language that echoes Robert Wertz's, Bess "is a builder, not a divider; he strives for the organizational good and not his own self-interest . . . Throughout the highly charged issues surrounding audiology today, he remains a gentleman, a mediator, and a scholar."

3. 3. AAA: Academy Founders

   www.audiology.org/aboutacademy - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/13/2007   Last Visited: 9/13/2007

   Fred Bess