Board

1 / Board Members 2 / Presidents blog 3 / Awards

The Board of Directors is responsible for the overall strategic and operational work of the BAA. Board Directors are both responsible for specific work areas and act as a liaison between a committee or work group. The current Board has 14 Directors, supported by our Marketing & Communications Manager and our PA. The Board meets quarterly and holds an annual strategy day to review the forward plan. Board minutes are published on the BAA website.

Executive Team

During the last eighteen months, we have developed a more active executive team to focus and maintain momentum between Board meetings. The President meets regularly with the Vice President, Past President, Treasurer and Marketing & Comms Manager. Each member of the executive team holds lead responsibilities for key objective areas and in supporting other Board Directors. These areas of responsibility are –

• President – Chairs the Board, is President of the Academy and supports the Board Directors of Membership and Professional Development.
• Vice President – Supports the President and supports the Board Directors of Education, Early Professionals, and Professional and Workforce Support
• Past President – Supports the President and the Board Director of Service Quality Committee
• Treasurer – Supports the President and the Board Director for E-Learning
• Marketing & Comms Manager – Supports all Board and links with the Board Directors for Conference, Regional Groups and Promoting Audiology & Publications

2024 - 2025 Board Members

Immediate Past President

Keiran Joseph

Treasurer

Laura Finegold

Board Director - Conference

Lauren Willis

Board Director - Regional Groups

Dawn Bramham

Board Director - Membership

Saira Hussain

Board Director - Education

Jason Smalley

Board Director - Professional Development

Dr Michelle Foster

Board Director - Profession Affairs and Workforce

Catherine Magee

Board Director - E-Learning

Laura Turton

Board Director - Policy & Campaigns

Adrian Carragher

Board Director - Promoting Audiology & Publications

Jane Deans

Board Director - Service Quality

President's Blog - 28th April 2025

Monday 28th April 2025

Today we are having our second Board meeting of the year. It is time to catch up with all the activities from the past few months and review the plan for the next quarter. We have a number of large projects on at the moment to bring you an improved offering from us. Our new website is in its final stages. It is easy to forget just how much information is on the website and how many resources there are – until you have to check every single page to ensure all the links are live, all the information is up to date, and each page functions as it should. This has been Victoria’s life for several weeks now, and it is nearly ready. We appreciate the frustration that a website can cause, especially around the HTS logbooks. We hope that the new website irons out all these niggles.

You may have read about Board Director Catherine Magee in a previous Horizons. She has been leading the creation of the e-learning content. Catherine, her committee, and several others have spent a huge amount of time creating a range of modules covering all aspects of audiology. The content of our e-learning will continue to grow with time. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see covered, please do get in touch.

On a similar theme of CPD, I hope you are enjoying the webinar series that has started. Tuesday lunchtimes are now synonymous with high-quality CPD and discussions. The webinars have been really well attended. Don’t forget, if you missed one, they can be found in the members section of the website. We have a great selection of speakers planned for future Tuesdays, so please keep an eye out for what is coming up and get yourself registered.

We really do hope it is clear that the Board is aiming to offer our members support for all aspects of your professional roles, wherever you work. As I keep mentioning, the focus of the government and the Department of Health and Social Care is on Audiology currently, and this attention is replicated in all four home countries. We need to ensure we are influencing these decision makers, getting involved, and representing our members appropriately. There are lots of opportunities for you to be involved in what we do, volunteering for different committees. Occasionally, it can feel as if the same voices are being heard during these times. This can make it feel like the same things are being heard. We must represent the Audiology community appropriately; the few don’t assume they speak for everybody. So if you feel unheard, or that what is being reported doesn’t reflect you, your ideas, your experiences, or you think something obvious is being missed – speak up, get in touch, volunteer and be part of the change that Audiology needs. We always welcome an extra pair of hands, a new voice and fresh eyes.

We continue to be more transparent about many aspects of our work on your behalf. To this end, we share some insight into the meetings in which we are invited to participate. If you scroll down the page, we also include overviews of our monthly Exec Board and quarterly Board meetings: BAA Board Meetings.

As always, you can contact me or any of our board directors here: admin@baaudiology.org

Take care

Claire
BAA President

Interested in joining a committee? Complete this, please: Expression of Interest form
Read our Joining a BAA Committee Policy

President's Blog - 28th April 2025

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President's Blog - 14th April 2025

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President's Blog - 31st March 25

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President's Blog - 3rd March 2025

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President's Blog - 17th March 2025

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Board Annual Awards

British Academy of Audiology Annual Awards

Every year at the BAA annual conference, we take the time to acknowledge those individuals and teams who have excelled or shown exceptional commitment to the Audiology profession over the past year.

Previous award winners can be found here.

This award will recognise an Audiology clinician who has gone above and beyond to improve the experience for a patient. The award is focused on patient care, and we particularly welcome testimonials and case studies from patients or colleagues, highlighting the reasons they should be nominated.

This award is presented in honour of Peggy Chalmers. She contributed immeasurably to Audiology, improving professional standards and training, and supporting hundreds of students from the UK and overseas. Her hard work and enthusiasm inspired many professionals in Audiology. With this award, we hope each winner will continue to inspire with their excellent work.

The prize is awarded to a team that has worked together to improve the quality of service in their area, in particular showing innovative and original ideas. Teams that work within an audiology department, in education, in research, or in an organisational capacity, are all eligible.

The BAA Team of the Year Award was created in 2004 to celebrate the coming together of different professions within Audiology.

This award will recognise a clinician who has gone above and beyond to provide a supportive learning environment for students in placement, providing leadership, guidance and inspiration. The award is focused on the mentoring of students, and we particularly welcome testimonials and case studies from students, colleagues and university placement teams highlighting the reason a particular person should be nominated.

The award is presented in honour of Paul Doody, an extraordinary Audiologist committed to training. He made a huge difference to the lives of numerous Audiologists.

The award is given for the best contribution to a BAA publication. The recipient is chosen from all articles printed in the previous year’s publications, and is chosen by the BAA publicity and communications team.

This award is presented in honour of Jos Millar, who showed a long-standing dedication to Audiology. He started his career in audiology at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, and later in his career, he embarked on a challenge to set up a paediatric service in his hometown of Ballymena.

This award is given to the person who has exceptional feedback during the examination process of the Higher Training Scheme. The HTS committee selects the winner based on examination feedback.

This award is presented in honour of Richard May, who loved Audiology. He was a student in the first intake of the MSc Audiology course in ISVR in 1972, and was the first Audiological Scientist in the country, at the Sussex Throat and Ear Hospital in Brighton. He died suddenly in 1982, aged 32, and was described by his family as a wonderful, kind and clever man.

This award is presented for outstanding research by a student or early professional. The award winner will be selected from all free papers presenting at the BAA conference, delivered by a student or early professional. A student is classed as anyone training and not yet qualified in Audiology, e.g. PTP, STP students, those doing apprenticeships, and an Early Professional is classed as those up to 5 years post-qualified.

This award is presented in honour of David Baguley, who loved to share knowledge. He was a prolific publisher of his research, and he spoke at conferences for professionals and the public to share that knowledge for the benefit of those with Hearing Loss and Tinnitus.

One of David’s passions was to encourage and support trainees and young professionals. He gave freely of his time to support others in their research, and this award, aimed at early professionals, is a fitting tribute to a man who will live on through the impact his writing and research has on the audiology community.