A tribute to Dafyd Stephens. Thank you.

11/07/2012 11/07/2012

I was really sad to learn that Professor: Dafyd Stephens has passed on. His legacy will live on.
I was privileged to work with Dai for four years at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in the early eighties, before I went to Australia and he went to Wales. I carried his influence to Australia, and use his publications to guide my work as a leader in hearing health care today.
One of the things I learnt from Dai was to be bold in doing what I believe to be the right thing. He lead a team who shared a wide range of skills and experiences, and Dai constantly challenged us to get the best possible outcomes we could for our hearing aid clients. This was in the days where the hearing aid technology was not all that sophisticated and very limited in choice. I was fortunate to be there when Professor David Goldstein from Purdue University did a sabbatical with us, and the legacy of their collaboration is still inspirational.

I am writing this from Australia, where I now run my own clinic and hearing aid company. I sell hearing aids that I have helped design, working with outstanding scientists and engineers. My dream has been to make excellent quality hearing aids very accessible, and this dream can be traced back a long way, and there is certainly a strong influence from Dai, who I think would approve. Dai showed me how to find the courage to go out on a limb, for what you believe in, and he also taught me to base my clinic and practice decisions on good clinical skills and good science.

Vale Professor Dafyd Stephens.

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Elaine Saunders

Elaine has worked in hearing research and technology for forty years. She is Co-founder, Blamey Saunders hears, a company which supplies affordable, discrete and highly effective hearing aids through an innovative online telehealth service and clinic based in Melbourne. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology at Swinburne University, and a clinical supervisor and mentor to many other students. She is former Chief Executive of Dynamic Hearing a company which supplied award winning digital signal processing for ultra-low power chips for the hearing aid and telephony industry. Elaine also led the Cooperative Research Centre team that developed a new electrode for Cochlear Ltd, leading to the company gaining the Australian Design award in 2000. In her youth, she was an international track runner. Elaine is an advocate for people with hearing loss, and a popular public speaker on the topic of Hearing and Listening. She is an Executive Director of the Rotary International Action Group on hearing and continues to try and reduce the barriers to hearing help. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Melbourne and Immediate Past Chair of its Health Issues Committee, Elaine is also the Chair of the Board of the Innovation Precinct at Swinburne University, member of the Industry Advisory panel (Engineering) for Swinburne University, and a Directorof ANFF. She was on the Advisory Board of the Children’s Charity Network (2005-2013) and is a former Non-Executive Director of Alfred Health. Elaine grew up with the struggles of hearing impairment from the age of 9 when her father lost his hearing. She experienced the struggles he had with his career, and the impact his loss had on their family. When she was a teenager in England, with her father’s encouragement, Elaine volunteered as a house mother in the residential section of the Royal Derby School for Deaf Children. Her close bond with these children and seeing their challenges first hand changed the course of Elaine’s life, in a quest to help people hear. Elaine has just helped to co-produce a play performed in Melbourne – The Sound of Waves – based on the life experience of a profoundly deaf girl (Jodie Harris, actor) who received a cochlear implant as a trial patient. Elaine was the leader of the Cochlear team that assessed Jodie for her implant in 1999. • Australian Design Award, Social Innovation 2015 • Australasian Industrial Research Group (AIRG) Medal for Research Innovation, 2013 • City of Melbourne: Melbourne Award for Contribution to Community, 2012 • Women in Leadership Forum, Asia: Leading Woman in Healthcare, 2011 • American Academy of Audiology: Award for Achievement in Industry, 2010 • Audiological Society of Australia: Certificate of Outstanding Service, 2008 • Telstra Business Woman of the Year National Award (Private & Corporate sector), 2004 • Biomelbourne Network, Leading Woman in Biotech, 2015

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Hi, I'm Dr. Elaine Saunders, award-winning hearing scientist and co-founder of profit-for-purpose hearing aid company Blamey Saunders hears. Welcome to my blog!

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