In Memory of Professor Emerita Barbara Cone
On January 4th, less than one year after her retirement from Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Professor Emerita Barbara Cone passed away. This is a huge loss. Dr. Cone was a force to be reckoned with in the field of pediatric audiology. Here at the University of Arizona, we were lucky to have her talents for over 20 years, during which time she made exceptional contributions.
Dr. Cone was an expert in the neuroscience of pediatric audiology. She did foundational work to understand the auditory neuroscience of the cortex, periphery, and brainstem using non-invasive methods in the quest to find methods to accurately make early diagnoses of hearing loss in high-risk infants. For example, while at the University of Arizona, she and her colleagues documented the maturation of the cortical auditory evoked potential in young children – work that has been cited over 300 times. Dr. Cone used evoked otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses to better understand the auditory neuroscience of typically-developing infants – a necessity for being able to identify hearing loss. Not only were her findings published in the major journals within our discipline, but her work had broad appeal, with publications in high-profile journals like Science. She was perhaps best known for her ability to apply these fundamental concepts to improving hearing diagnosis in infants, having discovered new ways to identify risk markers in infants, again, with some individual articles with over 300 citations. She had more than 83 peer-reviewed publications with over 6,000 citations. In a field as small as ours, this level of reach speaks to the impact of her work. Her work was supported financially by competitive grants from the University of Arizona and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Cone’s expertise was recognized by her peers beyond the realm of publication and funding. She was named an American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) Fellow in 2007, which is “…one of the highest honors the Association bestows.” (ASHA) with the requirements that the recipient’s work be outstanding and make significant contributions to the field. Dr. Cone’s work was recognized internationally, as she was selected to be an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand twice. Although this is a teaching Fellowship, it is based on the renown of the scholar; candidates do not apply – they are invited. Dr. Cone was also recognized as a Distinguished Alumnae from her PhD-granting institution.
Relative to her teaching, Dr. Cone made important contributions to the University, including helming a T32 training grant that helped encourage scholars to embark on a PhD to address the critical PhD shortage in our field. Dr. Cone mentored several doctoral students, has been the lead mentor for multiple AuD students, and was deeply committed to education of all the students she served. Students were frequent co-authors on her publications, demonstrating her commitment to their education and careers.
Dr. Cone also made extensive service contributions to the field, with a high-profile role as Vice President for Academic Affairs for our national organization (ASHA). Dr. Cone made significant service contributions internationally (e.g., committee member and grant reviewer for international organizations) and nationally (e.g., Editor and Associate Editor roles on journals). Relative to the University of Arizona, her contributions include a host of departmental responsibilities as well as College-level committees (e.g., awards, graduate council).
She will be deeply missed.