Heather Porter, Ph.D., and Krystal Werfel, Ph.D., Receive 2024 ASHA Journal Editor’s Awards
Friday, October 4, 2024
Boys Town National Research Hospital researchers Heather Porter, Ph.D., and Krystal Werfel, Ph.D., have been selected as recipients of two 2024 ASHA Journal Editor's Awards, recognizing their outstanding contributions to audiology and speech-language pathology research. The awards are given to authors whose articles, published in 2023, have made a significant impact on their respective fields.
Porter received the 2024 Editor's Award for her article published in the
American Journal of Audiology titled “Predicting Behavioral Threshold at 6 and 8 kHz for Children and Adults Based on the Auditory Brainstem Response."
“I would say that this was one of the best teams I've ever worked with, and I'm so proud and happy that our article was chosen for the Editor's Award," Porter said.
Her co-authors on the article include Christina Dubas, Manuel Vicente, Emily Buss, Ph.D., Danielle Bishop and Jan Kaminski.
“We started with a clinical question, and our team of clinicians and scientists worked together to perform high-quality laboratory work that directly translated into improving clinical practice," Porter added.
Lori Leibold, Ph.D., senior director of research at the Boys Town Center for Hearing Research, highlighted the article's significance: “The findings reported by Dr. Porter and her team have important implications for identifying hearing in infants, young children and individuals with significant developmental differences. This prestigious award reflects Dr. Porter's unique combination of clinical and research abilities, as well as her dedication to ensuring access to high-quality audiological services."
Werfel was recognized with the 2024 Editor's Award for her article “A Longitudinal Investigation of Code-Related Emergent Literacy Skills in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Across the Preschool Years," published in the
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Her co-authors include Gabriella Reynolds, Ph.D., and Lisa Fitton, Ph.D.
“I am pleased to learn that Dr. Werfel and her colleagues have been awarded an Editor's Award for their work," said Karla McGregor, Ph.D., lead scientist at the Boys Town Childhood Deafness Language and Learning Center. “Dr. Werfel and her team conduct impactful research on reading development among children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This is the second award she has won in four years, which speaks to the excellence of her research. We are fortunate to have Dr. Werfel as a colleague."
The awards will be presented to Porter and Werfel on Dec. 5 at the 2024 ASHA National Convention in Seattle. This is the first time Boys Town researchers have been awarded two of the 10 ASHA Editor's Awards.
For more information, visit
https://pubs.asha.org/journals/asha_journal_awards.
