Professor Barbara Weinstein Honored by Columbia Teachers College
She is recognized as a trailblazer in addressing hearing loss in older adults.

Columbia University Teachers College named Professor Barbara Weinstein (Audiology, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences), an expert on hearing loss in older adults, one of its 2022 Distinguished Alumni for her exceptional contributions to the public good and to her alma mater. She is one of seven honorees who will be recognized on Wednesday, November 16, during the annual State of the College event.
“We’re thrilled to honor this year’s Alumni Awards recipients, who as leaders in their respective fields, have made visionary contributions to education, health and the human condition,” Teachers College President Thomas Bailey said in a statement.
Learn more about the Ph.D. Program in Audiology
Weinstein was the first to document the connection between dementia and age-related hearing loss; social isolation/loneliness and age-related hearing loss; and the negative effects of face masks on speech comprehension at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While on the faculty at Teachers College upon graduation, Weinstein and her late mentor Professor Ira Ventry developed the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly, now the most widely used self-report scale for quantifying the psychosocial effects of age-related hearing loss. The author of the textbook Geriatric Audiology and numerous research articles, Weinstein has long advocated for integrating hearing health care into mainstream medical care. She previously received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the New York State Speech Language Hearing Association.
Weinstein has a Ph.D. in audiology with a minor in geriatrics from Columbia University Teachers College.
Learn more about the Ph.D. program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
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