Science Alumni Spotlight: Nikol Leitner

Dr. Nikol Leitner graduated from the Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) program at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2010 with a doctoral thesis on Tinnitus in Older Adults. She then went on to graduate the Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Master Class 2012 of the University of London, Birbeck College, where she received the first in Class Award. She is an International Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology.

After completing her residency at the James J. Peters Medical Center, part of the Veteran Health Care System, Dr. Leitner further developed expertise in comprehensive audiological diagnosis, care and management of adult and pediatric patients with ear disease and hearing loss, dizziness, head and neck tumors and in performing hearing aids and BAHA fitting, vestibular assessment, electrophysiological testing and cochlear mapping at the Montefiore Medical Center and Pediatric Otolaryngology Division in The Children's Hospital in Montefiore (CHAM), one of the most technologically advanced hospitals for children in the world.

Dr. Leitner currently serves as a clinical and dispensing audiologist in Medical Healthcom  -Voice and Hearing Center, Prague, Czech Republic. The clinic is one of the few centers providing adult and pediatric bone anchored hearing aids and cochlear implants pre-surgery counseling in the country. She was responsible for introducing into the current clinical practice the gold-standard of newborn tympanometric testing norms in babies who previously failed the newborn hearing screenings.  She is the first audiologist in Prague and is the only Doctor of Audiology from the U.S. working in the area.

She has also served as the Country Clinical and Business Manager of Audifon in the Czech Republic. Audiofon is one of the world’s leading hearing aid manufacturers which specializes in Tinnitus Retraining Therapy technology. Dr. Leitner oversaw the country’s business, marketing, and training activities, and directly supported the hearing healthcare dispensing physicians and their staff.

Dr. Leitner has also been providing audiological services in the U.S., in Israel and in Czech Republic in English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish and Czech languages. As a licensed audiologist in Israel, she provided audiological services to the multilingually and multiculturally diverse patient population. During this time, she lectured about hearing loss in the elderly, hearing aids and assistive technology and about access to hearing health care for the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI), a non-profit organization providing a wide range of services and programs for its English-speaking membership.

Dr. Leitner is dedicated to practicing the gold standard in hearing healthcare for children and adults. She believes in providing her patients with treatment choices and patient education and continues to promote patient centered care. Dr. Leitner advocates for tinnitus patients and introduces clinically and scientifically validated methods and procedures of tinnitus management in the country in the heart of Europe earned her Au.D. in Audiology from the Graduate Center. She is now a clinical audiologist at the New York Otolaryngology Group and an adjunct assistant professor at the Graduate Center.