National Hearing Conservation Association Conference

Portland, Ore., plays host to the 33rd annual National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) Conference Thursday, Feb. 21 through Saturday, Feb. 23 at the Marriot Downtown Waterfront Hotel. The conference features half- and full-day basic and advanced workshops, platform presentations, roundtable and panel discussions, poster sessions, exhibitors and networking opportunities. The conference will address topics that include noise exposure assessment for extended work shifts, an experimental hearing protection fitting workshop and a daylong hearing loss prevention session.

Speakers include Ioan Allen, senior vice president of Dolby Laboratories and Sharon Kujawa, Ph.D., director of audiology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and associate professor of otology and laryngology at Harvard Medical School. Kujawa’s keynote presentation, “Noise Exposure: Acute Insults and Delayed Neurodegenerative Outcomes,” will discuss how early noise exposure can lead to greater degrees of hearing loss later in life, as well as new findings that indicate this vulnerability is not unique to young ears.