UB Faculty Experts

 

Employment
Holly Justice
Career Counselor
University at Buffalo Career Services
716-645-4640
hjustice@buffalo.edu

Justice can discuss how veterans can translate their military experience into resumes that catch the attention of civilian companies. While veterans completing enlistments come home with valuable skills, finding work can be difficult if employers don’t understand how responsibilities in Iraq and Afghanistan apply to civilian jobs, she says.

Danise Levine (availability may be limited)
Assistant Director
University at Buffalo Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA Center)
716-645-4655
chsu22@buffalo.edu

Levine can discuss how families can improve their homes to provide comfortable living for returning veterans. Through the Wounded Warrior Home Project at Fort Belvoir, Va., she helped design two demonstration houses that address challenges that wounded veterans might face. Exterior lights provide security and comfort for soldiers with PTSD, for instance, while wider doorways make it easier for soldiers with limb amputations to get around.

 

John Violanti
Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine
University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
716-829-5367
violanti@buffalo.edu

 

Violanti can discuss the causes and symptoms of PTSD, as well as how social support from family and friends can help ameliorate the effects of the disorder. Violanti is a military veteran and a former member of the New York State Police. He studies the effect of stress in persons working in dangerous professions, such as police, firefighting and military occupations.

 

Richard Salvi
Director of the UB Center for Hearing and Deafness, and Professor of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, otolaryngology and neurology
University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences
salvi@buffalo.edu

 

Salvi can discuss causes and symptoms of tinnitus, as well as advances in treatment. He organized a conference this summer that brought together the world’s leading experts on the disorder. Tinnitus, sometimes called a ringing in the ears, is the perception of sound in the absence of a corresponding external stimulus.

 

As many as half of combat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan return home with tinnitus, making it a huge and expensive problem for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Salvi says. He has also done work on noise-induced hearing loss, a frequent cause of tinnitus.

Read a story about the tinnitus conference Salvi organized: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/12768
Read about tinnitus and Salvi’s work in the New Yorker: http://bit.ly/vhWoNM
 

Kerry Donnelly
Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology
University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Graduate School of Education

&

Clinical Neuropsychologist

Veterans Affairs (VA) Western New York Health Care System
716-645-2484
kzd@buffalo.edu

 

Donnelly can discuss the long-term challenges and effects of TBI, a “signature injury” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At several Upstate New York VA medical centers, she is leading a four-year study following veterans with TBI, which can lead to deficits in memory, attention and decision-making. Veterans who have mild TBI may be overlooked by the health care system, especially when they have more obvious, visible injuries, Donnelly says.

Read a story about Donnelly’s study on TBI: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/9884

A: They were damaging the sensory hair cells in the inner ear.  Sensory cells act much like a microphone, converting acoustic energy (sound) into electrochemical signals that neurons use to rapidly transmit information from the ear to the hearing region in the brain.  Hearing loss due to noise exposure, aging and certain drugs damage the sensory hair cells. 

Q: What is happening to the hair cells?

A: Sensory calls are arranged like a piano keyboard.  Losing hearing sensitivity at the high frequencies is typically associated with partial damage or complete degeneration of the sensory cells located near the “piano keys” at the bottom of the inner ear, or cochlea. Losing sensitivity to low frequency sounds means there is damage to the hair cells at the top. When hair cells are damaged they can’t send information from the inner ear to the brain.  Unfortunately, hair cells in the inner ear do not regenerate

Q: What will a person miss with “slight hearing loss”?

Noise-induced hearing loss is progressive.  If you go to an extremely loud rock concert, you may leave with your ears ringing, a condition called tinnitus, and sounds feel muffled.  If you sense this after listening to your MP3 player, riding your motorcycle, operating a power saw or lawn mower, you may have just injured your inner ear.  If you are lucky, the tinnitus and plugged ear feeling will go away in a day or two. But if you do this over and over again, the hearing loss will progress from slight, to moderate and eventually to profound, when it is extremely difficult to hear anything. Beware that some sounds are so intense that a single brief exposure, such as a rifle shot, jet engine or explosion will cause a permanent loss.  My father, a hunter, developed a profound hearing loss because he failed to wear ear plugs. 

Q: What is your advice?

A: Since there is no cure for hearing loss, we can only rely on prevention, which means wearing ear muffs or ear plugs when operating noisy power equipment, or listening to your personal music player at a moderate volume for a short time.  If you are a musician, get yourself musician’s earplugs that allow you to hear the music but at a slightly lower intensity.   Stay away from extremely high intensity sounds, such as jet engines and fireworks, because even hearing protectors may not be sufficient.