About the University
Western Washington University, with over 16,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western is the highest-ranking public, master’s-granting university in the Pacific Northwest, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western’s greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.
About the Department
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) support Western’s mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.
The CSD Department offers a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Sciences and Disorders, a Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology, and a Doctorate of Audiology. The CSD department currently includes 8 tenure-track faculty, 4 non-tenure track faculty, 11 part-/full-time clinical educators, 3 support staff, 120 undergraduate CSD majors, and 39 graduate students in speech-language pathology and 31 graduate students in audiology. CSD is located in the east wing of the Academic Instruction Center, a LEED certified building. Our fully-mediated and well-equipped classrooms, teaching labs, clinics, and research labs provide outstanding learning, clinical assessment/intervention, and research environments. The CSD Department is committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion and supporting the success of faculty, staff, and students with diverse backgrounds. Learn more about the Department’s commitment to dismantle racism and cultivate a culture of equity and inclusion. For more information about the Department of CSD at WWU, visit our website.
About the Position
The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Western Washington University (WWU) invites applications for an Assistant/Associate Professor, tenure-track position in Audiology/Hearing and Speech Sciences, anticipated to begin September 16, 2024. Candidates hired into the associate professor rank (pre-tenure) may have an expedited timeline to tenure.
Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses; supervising graduate students in the campus clinic; mentoring student research; conducting scholarly activity including research, presentations, and publications; and participating in service opportunities. The successful candidate will be expected to fulfill teaching and mentoring responsibilities in ways that provide equitable and inclusive learning environments for all students.
Required Qualifications
- Ph.D. at time of application OR ABD at time of application in Audiology/Hearing and Speech Sciences or equivalent (e.g., AuD). If ABD, all degree requirements must be completed by June 15th of the first year of employment.
- Strong record of or potential for effective teaching
- Demonstrated commitment to excellence in scholarship
- Demonstrated ability and commitment to cultivating a work environment that is equitable and inclusive of faculty, staff, and students from diverse cultural backgrounds and social identities.
- Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate
- ASHA clinical certification (CCC-A) within 24 months of hire.
- Valid State of Washington Audiologist licensure (or eligible)
For appointment at the associate level (pre-tenure), demonstrated significant research and evidence of successful teaching commensurate with standards for promotion to associate professor in the department, college and university.
Preferred Qualifications
- Expertise in one or more of the following areas: Pediatric audiology, vestibular diagnosis and treatment, pediatric amplification, Cochlear implants, aural rehabilitation, industrial audiology, hearing conservation, tinnitus, or auditory processing disorders
- Clinical experience
- University teaching and clinical supervision experience
Conditions of Employment
All employees must comply with our Immunization policies, including Proof of Rubeola Measles Immunity within 60-days of hire. Please reach out to HR@wwu.edu if you need information regarding medical or religious exemption and applicable accommodations.
Salary
The starting salary range for assistant professor appointment, tenure-track is generally between $71,000-$74,000, with placement within the position’s salary range being based on qualifications and professional experience. The entire salary range for the assistant professor position is $71,000-$83,000, with the upper end of the salary range typically being achieved through collectively bargained salary adjustments.
The starting salary range for associate professor appointment, tenure-track is generally between $75,000-$85,000, with placement within the position’s salary range being based on qualifications and professional experience. The entire salary range for the associate professor position is $75,000-$101,000, with the upper end of the salary range typically being achieved through collectively bargained salary adjustments.
Relocation assistance may be available per University guidelines. Salary and start-up funds are to be determined upon being offered the position.
Benefits Information
Benefits Overview for Faculty Positions
Academic Emphasis
Audiology
Bargaining Unit
United Faculty of Western Washington
Application Instructions
A complete application should include:
- A cover letter and curriculum vitae addressing your experience related to the position responsibilities, the required and preferred qualifications, and statements of teaching philosophy and research plans;
- A separate statement that addresses your demonstrated ability and commitment to cultivating a work environment that is equitable and inclusive of faculty, staff, and students from diverse cultural backgrounds and social identities (maximum 2 pages); this statement should include your past experiences with, and plans for contributing to accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion inside and outside the classroom (for more information see Advancing Diversity and Inclusion at Western);
- Graduate school transcripts;
The names and contact information of three professional references; letters of recommendation will be requested for candidates following the first round of review.
Closing Date Notes
Application review begins January 5, 2024; position is open until filled.
To apply for this job please visit hr.wwu.edu.
Kirupa Suthakar, PhD - Dr Kirupa Suthakar is a postdoctoral fellow at NIH/NIDCD, having formerly trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and doctoral student at Garvan Institute of Medical Research/UNSW Australia. Kirupa's interest in the mind and particular fascination by how we are able to perceive the world around us led her to pursue a research career in auditory neuroscience. To date, Kirupa's research has broadly focused on neurons within the auditory efferent circuit, which allow the brain to modulate incoming sound signals at the ear. Kirupa is active member of the spARO community, serving as the Chair Elect for 2021.
Charles C. Della Santina, PhD MD is a Professor of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he directs the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Implant Center and the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Laboratory.
Andrew Griffith received his MD and PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1992. He completed his general surgery internship and a residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan in 1998. He also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Human Genetics as part of his training at the University of Michigan. In 1998, he joined the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) in the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). He served as a senior investigator, the chief of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Section, the chief of the Otolaryngology Branch, and the director of the DIR, as well as the deputy director for Intramural Clinical Research across the NIH Intramural Research Program. His research program identifies and characterizes molecular and cellular mechanisms of normal and disordered hearing and balance in humans and mouse models. Two primary interests of his program have been hearing loss associated with enlargement of the vestibular aqueduct, and the function of TMC genes and proteins. The latter work lead to the discovery that the deafness gene product TMC1 is a component of the hair cell sensory transduction channel. Since July of 2020, he has served as the Senior Associate Dean of Research and a Professor of Otolaryngology and Physiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Gwenaëlle S. G. Géléoc obtained a PhD in Sensory Neurobiology from the University of Sciences in Montpellier (France) in 1996. She performed part of her PhD training at the University of Sussex, UK where she characterized sensory transduction in vestibular hair cells and a performed a comparative study between vestibular and cochlear hair cells. Gwenaelle continued her training as an electrophysiologist at University College London studying outer hair cell motility and at Harvard Medical School studying modulation of mechanotransduction in vestibular hair cells. As an independent investigator at the University of Virginia, she expanded this work and characterized the developmental acquisition of sensory transduction in mouse vestibular hair cells, the developmental acquisition of voltage-sensitive conductances in vestibular hair cells and the tonotopic gradient in the acquisition of sensory transduction in the mouse cochlea. This work along with quantitative spatio-temporal studies performed on several hair cell mechanotransduction candidates lead her to TMC1 and 2 and long-term collaborations with Andrew Griffith and Jeff Holt. Dr. Géléoc is currently Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, at Boston Children’s Hospital where she continues to study molecular players involved in the development and function of hair cells of the inner ear and develops new therapies for the treatment of deafness and balance, with a particular focus on Usher syndrome.
Jeff Holt earned a doctorate from the Department of Physiology at the University of Rochester in 1995 for his studies of inward rectifier potassium channels in saccular hair cells. He went on to a post-doctoral position in the Neurobiology Department at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he characterized sensory transduction and adaptation in hair cells and developed a viral vector system to transfect cultured hair cells. Dr. Holt’s first faculty position was in the Neuroscience Department at the University of Virginia. In 2011 the lab moved to Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Dr. Holt is currently a Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology and Neurology in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center. Dr. Holt and his team have been studying sensory transduction in auditory and vestibular hair cells over the past 20 years, with particular focus on TMC1 and TMC2 over the past 12 years. This work lead to the discovery that TMC1 forms the hair cell transduction channel. His work also focuses on development gene therapy strategies for genetic hearing loss.
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