May 2, 2019: Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, announced the selection of Debara Tucci, M.D., as the new director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).  Dr. Tucci currently is professor of surgery and director of the cochlear implant program at Duke University.  She is expected to join NIDCD at the beginning of September 2019. Read more about the announcement.

She was also on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Committee for Accessible and Affordable Hearing Health Care for Adults. HLAA was the only consumer group sponsor of the study produced by the committee. Richard Einhorn, HLAA Board of Trustees chair-elect, serves on the NIDCD Advisory Council, and HLAA Executive Director Barbara Kelley begins a five-year term on the NIDCD Advisory Council in September.