The University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher will retire at the close of the spring 2023 semester

A lot has changed in the more than four decades since Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences Professor Sandra Gordon-Salant, who will be retiring this month after an impressive and impactful 42-year career, joined the University of Maryland as an Assistant Professor. 

“When I started here in 1981, I didn't have any children,” the now mother of two and grandmother of four—and one on the way—said. “There was no maternity leave plan, and it wasn’t easy to juggle a career and family life, but we found a way to make it work. When I was at work, I was completely focused on work, and when I was at home, I focused on my kids.”

When Gordon-Salant was at work, however, teaching wasn’t the only thing she was focused on. Gordon-Salant was also an avid researcher and mentor, for students and for her colleagues. 

Department Impact

“I have been a colleague and friend of Sandy’s for a decade now, and in that time, I have been able to see firsthand the tremendous impact that she has had in the department, college, university, and nationally in the fields of audiology and hearing science,” said Associate Professor Samira Anderson. “I and others in the department have greatly benefitted from Sandy’s mentorship; she has provided important advice and guidance about balancing the many demands of an academic career, has helped establish connections with other leaders and groups on the campus, and has personally had a huge influence on my research career trajectory, for which I am very grateful.”

Gordon-Salant is very proud of her research on the effects of aging and hearing loss on auditory processes, studies of which have been consecutively funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Aging since 1986. With additional grants from the Department of Defense, Gordon-Salant’s research projects have attracted more than $21 million in total funding.

“The support for my research from the NIH and the recognition that my research has received over the years is extremely meaningful to me,” said Gordon-Salant. “I think I really made my biggest impact on the field through those publications, and on the department and university through the indirect costs that research has brought in.”

Gordon-Salant’s research has also had a positive impact on HESP students and HESP faculty.

“Sandy’s research career is simply stellar,” said HESP Department Chair Rochelle Newman. “Since 2015 she has been co-PI on an NIH T32 grant that has provided both funding and advanced training to literally dozens of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral students, having a major impact on both their careers and those of their mentors … and in 2017, Sandy brought together a group of faculty from across the campus to develop a collaborative research program to tackle a large societal problem: communication difficulties of older adults with age-related hearing loss. This program has been funded via a Program Project Grant (P01) from the National Institute on Aging and has had a tremendous impact on the careers of more than a half-dozen UMD faculty, in addition to its impact on the field.”

Student Impact

Working with students from a wide variety of backgrounds—having created UMD’s Doctoral Program in Clinical Audiology in 2002, served as the program’s director for 20 years, and been an active supporter of students underrepresented in the sciences—also makes Gordon-Salant “extremely proud.” 

“I've loved working with students; teaching them, nurturing them, and watching undergraduates and graduate students in my lab become independent professionals and researchers,” she said. “I'm thrilled that I have been a part of these students’ early formative years in the field.”

Gordon-Salant’s students are equally thrilled to have had her as their teacher. 

“I would not be where I am today without the guidance and mentorship of Sandy Gordon-Salant,” said Rebecca Bieber, Au.D. ’17, Ph.D. ’21. “Sandy was my mentor throughout two graduate degrees, and was always highly supportive of me pursuing my clinical and research interests. Sandy was always my champion and always encouraged me to pursue exciting opportunities. I am very grateful to have had her in my life!”

Julie Cohen, who also had Gordon-Salant’s support through her Au.D. and Ph.D., echoed Bieber’s thoughts: “Sandy has been my mentor and teacher for over 17 years and was a formative figure throughout my young adult life. She is incredibly passionate about training the next generation of clinicians and scientists and is a champion for her students. I would not be where I am today without her support and guidance.”

Lasting Impact

The path that Gordon-Salant’s career has taken isn’t one she admittedly ever envisioned for herself, especially where all of her collaborative research is concerned. Again showing how much has changed at UMD over the years, Gordon-Salant said collaboration wasn’t celebrated at UMD the way it is now as having multiple authors on one paper would call into question each researchers’ unique contribution. 

That’s why Gordon-Salant says the invitation she received in 1993 from Arthur Popper, Department of Biology Professor Emeritus, to join a group of researchers from all across campus studying hearing through different models (human and animal) in the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology was a ”pivotal moment.” 

“Prior to that time, I really worked on my own in my own lab and didn't collaborate much with other people. Joining the center introduced me to all these wonderful researchers on campus, and so when I decided to put together that Neuroplasticity and Auditory Aging project grant from the NIH in 2017, I invited some of these folks from the center to join me, and they did,” said Gordon-Salant, who will continue to work on this project after her retirement becomes official. “I would never have even thought of doing something like that or being involved in this kind of collaborative research if it hadn't been for that invitation.”

For this and the many more experiences, awards and recognitions she has earned over the years—including the James Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology in 2009, the Al Kawana Award for outstanding contributions to research from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) in 2013, Honors of the ASHA in 2017, and most recently, the 2023 BSOS Dean’s Medal—Gordon-Salant is grateful. 

“I just feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world, really, to have found a career that has been so energizing and rewarding on so many levels,” she said. 

Photo of HESP Professor Sandra Gordon-Salant (left) with BSOS Dean Susan M. Rivera after receiving the 2023 Dean's Medal is by Thomas Bacho

Original Article can be found on the BSOS website.