Each year, the American Academy of Audiology asks colleagues, friends, and mentees to look around their professional circles and recognize members who are deserving of recognition for outstanding service to audiology and the hearing sciences. This year, Patricia Gaffney, Au.D., was chosen as the 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award and the Department of Audiology could not be prouder!
Gaffney has distinguished herself as a superior professor in the Department of Audiology, where her demanding didactic courses, clinical supervision, and research mentorship have earned her high respect from her students and her faculty colleagues.
Gaffney has been teaching doctoral audiology students since her appointment to Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in 2007. She teaches multiple courses in vestibular science and amplification where she skillfully weaves theory to practice from classroom to clinic. In the clinical realm, Gaffney precepts students and provides care to patients in the NSU Audiology Clinic. Most of her clinical focus is seeing adult and pediatric patients with vestibular complaints. This is where you can truly see Gaffney’s impact as students start translating what they have learned in the classroom to clinical practice.
Gaffney’s teaching philosophy is simple. “Make our students into the best audiologists. When you produce good audiologists, that speaks for itself in the profession. The impact of well-trained audiologists is a continuous process because it means that patients will be treated in the way they need, and when the graduate become a preceptor, it will enhance the knowledge of the next generation of audiologists. Every day when I teach, that is in the forefront of my mind. This guides how I plan my semester, write lectures, precept students in the clinic, and counsel them.”
Gaffney represents the very best in education and we are all better for having been her colleague over the years.