Faculty Focus: Dr. Aaron Roman

Aaron Roman, AuD, CCC-A, FAAA, loves research and data analytics. Fortunately for him, he’s found a way to combine both of those interests in his professional endeavors.

And, as a new faculty member in the Osborne College of Audiology at Salus University effective July 1, 2022, Dr. Roman hopes to continue to combine his interest in numbers with his interest in hearing as he teaches the next generation of audiologists.

Dr. Roman’s research interests tend to focus on studying second language learning or cognitive impairment’s relationship with hearing loss. However, in his third year of graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Roman was accepted into the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disorders (LEND), a fellowship for professionals across the healthcare continuum to work specifically with children experiencing complex neurological disorders.

During that fellowship, he conducted an analysis of newborn hearing screening trends from data collected by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which was later presented at a national conference in Colorado. At that conference, Dr. Roman was approached by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services which asked him to do continued analyses for the organization, further piquing his interest in statistical analysis with large datasets and allowing him to use his research to help improve newborn hearing screenings in the state of Pennsylvania.

Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Dr. Roman graduated from Pitt with a degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. After finishing his doctorate there as well, he took a job at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was the sole tenure-track faculty member with a specialty in audiology. He rose to the position of clinical director of the speech and hearing clinic, though West Chester only offered a speech-language pathology graduate program and no audiology program.

When the position at OCA opened up, Dr. Roman was eager to learn more.

“I’ve known about Salus as a university and institution forever,” he said. “It was an easy call when the offer came in to jump into a more audiology-specific environment and one in which I feel professionally I can grow more as an audiologist.”

As a tenure track faculty member, Dr. Roman will be teaching courses in auditory processing and labs in auditory brainstem response measurement. He is also a clinician, and will be working with the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) where he will be performing a full range of services with a concentration on auditory processing disorders.

He will also be continuing his research in the area of aging — focusing on the relationship of hearing loss and cognitive decline.

“As with most people I have family members who have been affected by cognitive decline,” said Dr. Roman. “I’ve always been interested in cognition.”

Since undergrad, one of his major interests was neuroscience.

“I have always wanted to study the brain in some capacity. From there I read some of the research with hearing loss and I got really into how it’s replicated and how there is no standardization in it,” he said. “A lot of what I talk about and preach upon is lack of standardization in cognition and hearing loss research.”

As someone who admittedly is calmer when he’s regimented, Dr. Roman has a variety of interests outside academia, including learning different languages, trivia, computer programming, and music. He’s been playing piano since he was six years old, and also played the trombone and euphonium is high school and college marching bands. He enjoys classical music, movie soundtracks, and pop music.

While at OCA, he hopes to work toward his PhD. And, he said he’s excited for the opportunity to grow both as a researcher and a clinician, something that he personally wants to see for himself.

“It’s a really interesting amalgamation of academics and clinic here,” said Dr. Roman. “I enjoy the opportunities that are provided and the variety of different hats you can wear here. I’ve already found myself changing hats. I really enjoy that. It makes for a fresh day every day. That’s the sort of environment that I like.”