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 workgroup. The current Board has 13 Directors supported by our Digital Content & Communications Executive and Fitwise management team. 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 and Comms Executive. 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 and supports the Board Directors for EAR, Membership and Early Profs
• Vice President – Supports the President and supports the Board Director for SQC
• Past President – Board Director for Regional Groups, and supports the Board Directors for Conference and Pubs & Comms

2020/2021 Board Members

Kathryn Lewis

BAA President 2020/21

Sue Falkingham

BAA Past President

Sam Lear

BAA Vice President 2020/21

Barbara Gregg

BAA Treasurer

Claire Benton

Board Director - Conference Lead

Lizanne Steenkamp

Board Director - Education, Accreditation and Registration

Dr Tim Wilding

Board Director - Education, Accreditation and Registration

Dr Michelle Foster

Board Director - Healthcare Science Lead

Sam Lear

Board Director - Service Quality Committee Lead (SQC)

Heather Dowber

Board Director - Membership Secretary

Charlotte Rogers

Board Director - Early Professional Lead (EP)

Susannah Goggins

Board Director - Conference

Laura Finegold

Board Director - Publicity & Communications

President's Blog 21st September

Last week we held the BAA heads of service webinar and had quite a packed agenda.

We love that the clear face masks have started arriving in departments. This is an important development for us all. Now the Department of Health and Social Care gathers the feedback necessary on them. For those who have managed to get some, we use them as needed with the caveat that they are not used in high risk areas. (see update and provide feedback here).

I am excited about the forthcoming projects of the Person-Centred Hearing Network (PCHN). We will have more information soon, from the Ida Institute, on how you can get involved in the projects. In the meantime, they are looking for some paediatric audiologists to get in touch here.

We are progressing with the next steps of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work. The very basic information we need is the demographics of our members. Please look out for any requests to update your membership profile information. This is one of the important first steps to ensuring we are representative and inclusive. More information will be coming out soon.

Thank you to those members who have put themselves forward to be a BAA Board Director. There’s still time if you are considering this next step. Applications close on the 5th October and we will then go to election.

There have been lots of entries for this year’s abstract submissions. Thank you to all who have sent these in, even though we will not see them in person this year. I always enjoy reading about the research projects and service developments every year. Amazing work goes on, which shows how keenly our profession looks to future possibilities.

During the most recent Heads of Service webinar, we ran some polls. We asked which departments had returned to routine appointments. 97% said they had. Don’t forget we are here to support you, as our NHS services return to routine work. We know that our members in the private sector also face the same issues and have commenced routine work. We hope that a further shutdown does not occur nationwide. With the Joint Guidance in place, I do hope we can keep our services running.

We aim to run the Heads of service online meetings quarterly, with the next one coming in January 2021. There are plenty of educative BAA webinars coming up in October and November – keep an eye on the events page.

Take care

Kath Lewis

President's Blog 7th September 20

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President's Blog 24th August 20

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President's Blog 10th August 20

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President's Blog 27th July 20

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President's Blog 13th July 20

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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.

The BAA award for the Audiologist of the Year, in memory of Peggy Chalmers, recognises an Audiologist who stands out from the crowd with regards to patient care. We look for an individual who has gone above and beyond to put the patient first, or improve their experience in even a small way, making a significant difference to them. This award is focused on patient care and we particularly welcome testimonials and case studies from patients, or colleagues, highlighting the reasons their Audiologist should be nominated.

Peggy Chalmers contributed immeasurably to audiology in many ways, 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 and with this award, we hope each winner will continue to inspire with their excellent work.

The BAA Team of the Year Award was created in 2004 to celebrate the coming together of the different professions within Audiology. The prize is awarded to a team which has worked together to improve the quality of service in their area. Teams which work within an audiology department, in education, in research, or in an organisational capacity are all eligible. Past winners have shown particularly innovative and original ideas or worked on a specific project directly connected to audiology. Anyone can make a nomination, the winning team is chosen by the BAA board and will have the opportunity to share their accomplishments via the BAA magazine.

Lisa Bayliss was a 20-year old student Audiologist working at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Sadly, in 1992, Lisa’s life was tragically taken on her way home from work. Lisa is greatly missed by all who met her but especially her family, colleagues and her patients. Lisa was kind, caring and worked well with everyone she met. She was described as a great people person. When it was suggested that an award be named in her honour, it came as no surprise that the award would be given to someone who showed the qualities Lisa possessed in abundance.

The Lisa Bayliss award was traditionally given to the student who performed best at the BAAT part 2 practical exam. With the introduction of the BSc, the award is now given to the student who performs the best during their BSc (PTP) placement.

The BAA award for the Placement Supervisor of the Year recognises an Audiologist who stands out from the crowd with regards to supervising and supporting a student while on placement. We look for an individual who has gone above and beyond to provide a supportive learning environment on placement for students, providing leadership and guidance as well as inspiration. The award is focused on the mentoring of students and we particularly welcome testimonials and case studies from student, colleagues and university placement teams highlighting the reason a particular audiologist should be nominated.

The award is given in honour of Paul Doody, an extraordinary Audiologist who was totally committed to training; he made a huge difference in the lives of numerous Audiologists. Shortly before the 2016 annual conference and after organising the Associate lecture track for the conference, Paul sadly passed away. Although he would not consider this an honour or indeed necessary, his family, friends and colleagues strongly disagree with him. They and the BAA Board feel he had the qualities all nominees for this award should aspire to.

This award, sponsored by Phonak, is for Audiologists working in the field of paediatrics who, it is felt, have influenced the audiological world. We welcome nominations from colleagues, patients and families highlighting why this person stands out from the crowd. We just ask that the nominated Audiologist has worked in their current position for at least six months.

The Student of the Year, sponsored by Oticon, is presented to the student who has achieved academic success in their course, particularly in their final dissertation. This award is open to students on all audiology courses leading to qualification or registration. All High Education Institutes will be invited to nominate students who they feel have achieved a high standard of work in their course. These students will be invited to submit an abstract on their dissertation to be judged by a panel.

The Jos Millar Shield is a long-standing award given each year for the best contribution to a BAA publication. The recipient is chosen from all articles printed in the previous year’s magazine and newsletter and is chosen by the publicity and communications team.

Jos Millar started his career in audiology at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He had an interest in sound and radio and when an opportunity within audiology came along, he moved to this field and went to Manchester to complete his training. He was always fond of paediatric audiology so returned to the Royal Belfast Hospital for sick children. Later in his career he embarked on a new challenge to set up a paediatric service in his home town of Ballymena.

With his dedication to Audiology, it was only fitting for an award to be named in his honour.