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Saying Goodbye to Dr. Ryals

As our CSD seniors are getting ready to graduate and take their next big step in their lives, one of our CSD faculty members is preparing for a big change as well. Dr. Ryals is retiring after 27 years at JMU.
            Dr. Ryals is an audiology professor and Editor-in-Chief of Ear and Hearing, the official journal of the American Auditory Society. Dr. Ryals has had a full career that started with an interest in communication during high school. When she started her undergraduate career at East Carolina University, she was originally interested in speech-language pathology, but after learning more about audiology, she decided to change her career path when she entered graduate school at the University of Tennessee. After receiving her Masters degree, she had a busy career working in private practices and ENT offices, owning a private practice of her own, earning her Ph.D. from UVA, working with both the infant and geriatric populations, and eventually coming to JMU to continue her research and explore academia. She considers the highlight of her career to be the year of 1988 when she had her son, she worked with others to convince the government to form the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), and she published a research article on her discovery that birds’ hair cells regenerate and therefore prevent them from going permanently deaf. Her hard work in the field was recognized with the Honors of the Association Award in 2014, the highest award granted by ASHA.
             While at JMU, Dr. Ryals has enjoyed the culture of academic life and working with students who she deemed “excited, interested, and smart.” When asked what advice she would give to students starting out in the field, she stated “If you don’t keep learning, you’ll get bored, and boredom is death to life.” Some other words of wisdom she gave were “don’t be afraid to ask questions” or “be a nerd”. She stressed the importance of colleagues, claiming that they are “critical” to your life, work, and happiness. While Dr. Ryals will be missed at JMU, she will continue to be involved in the field by continuing as Editor-in-Chief of Ear and Hearing, volunteering for ASHA, catching up on reading research, and traveling to conferences. Dr. Ryals’ career is a testament to the success that can be achieved with a passion for learning and a commitment to expanding the fields of audiology and speech-language pathology. 

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