Osborne College of Audiology Dean: Victor Bray, 2009-2016 

When George S. Osborne, PhD, DDS, AuD (honorary), the founder of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) School of Audiology, died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2007, the program was left without its guiding light.  

Fortunately, Dr. Osborne had left a written blueprint of his vision for the future of the program and the profession, a plan that would greatly benefit the next leader: Victor Bray, MSC, PhD, FNAP. 

“The man was a visionary. I could never walk in his shoes, but I had his vision statement that mapped out the path forward,” said Dr. Bray. “It included the blueprint that had been approved by Salus University’s Board of Trustees; a plan that was not for a traditional graduate school program as part of a Communication and Sciences Department, but a professional degree program modeled on the doctoring healthcare professions.”  

This was the key idea, as Dr. Osborne had obtained his first professional degree in dentistry, and, with PCO, he had located a welcoming professional school environment in optometry.    

Dr. Bray was hired in 2009 as dean of the Osborne College of Audiology (OCA), upon PCO establishing Salus University in 2008.

“I knew where the endpoint was. So, the challenge was to get there. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do that, but I was confident that I had the skill set,” he said.   

That skill set started being built early on. After he obtained his undergraduate degree (BS) from the University of Georgia, he obtained his clinical master’s degree (MSC) in audiology from Auburn University, and a research doctorate (PhD) from the University of Texas at Austin.

“I didn't want to be a university professor, which is the traditional path of PhDs. I wanted to be a researcher working with the hearing aid industry at the clinical interface. That was my objective,” said Dr. Bray.  

After 15 years as a clinician, he transitioned to industry research and development (R&D). During his 15 years in industry and across multiple assignments, he managed auditory and clinical research teams inside R&D, quality assurance inside U.S. manufacturing operations, regulatory affairs for international operations, and was a member of the executive staff as vice president and chief audiology officer.   

 It was Anthony Di Stefano, OD ‘73, MEd, MPH, FAAO, who was then the vice president of Academic Affairs at Salus, who convinced Dr. Bray to make the transition from industry to academia.

“I would not have taken any other job in academia. It was a very hard decision to make because by the time the job offer from Salus had come, I had already accepted another industry position with a new medical-device company,” said Dr. Bray.

As he described it, the project was to design the first fully implantable hearing aid, something that did not exist on the market at the time.

“We had intellectual property, and we had the venture capital funding. It was an exciting opportunity to innovate and improve amplification systems for persons with hearing loss,” he said. “The reason I came here was because of the vision that Drs. Osborne and Di Stefano had for the academic program, which could become a new educational model for the profession.”   

Dr. Osborne had laid out a seven-point plan for the future of the profession, and those points included: becoming an autonomous profession; becoming a doctoring profession; obtaining limited licensed practitioner status; creating its own professional organization; developing an enriched curriculum; enjoying direct access by all patients; and developing a new professional structure.

“When I arrived, I was fortunate to be surrounded by excellent people in Academic Affairs,” said Dr. Bray. “They all knew that I came from outside academia, but they provided a mentoring network for me that helped me take my industry skill set and adapt it to this new educational environment.”  

Over the next several years, Dr. Bray set about implementing Dr. Osborne’s plan. The objective was to build the nation’s first stand-alone College of Audiology. And, there was tremendous success in achieving that objective. As there was no template because there were no colleges of audiology, the key thing to accomplish, to be a college, was recruiting and retaining a large number of students thereby generating significant tuition revenues for autonomy and sustainability.

“As you increase the class size and program size, you assemble a large faculty that brings in a variety of specialties so every student is being taught by a content expert in every course,” said Dr. Bray. “From these foundations, you can continue to build a program that has additional resources and opportunities, but you only do that by thinking large.”  

He is proud of what he accomplished for OCA as its dean. In the on-campus program, he grew the class sizes to 32 and the program size to more than 120 students, hired faculty and staff to support the needs of the students, expanded the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) multiple times to its current size, and over time, OCA once became the largest Audiology degree program in the country.   

In parallel, he closed the online AuD-degree Bridge Program in 2010, as planned with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, after it awarded more than 2,000 of the new doctoral degrees.  

For Dr. Bray, the question then became, “What are we going to do now with distance education?” The answer was that through PCO, there was a platform for the international education of optometrists.

Dr. Bray would build on that platform to establish a new and more rigorous doctoral degree bridge program — Audiology Distance Education 2.0 — that would focus on the international students, but still offer inclusion to U.S. students. He was also responsible for the development of three online graduate certificate specialization programs, and helped lay the foundation for the online Master of Clinical Science in Audiology, again focusing on international students. 

“OCA’s global footprint is large because we are training audiologists all around the world who have a master’s degree in audiology, largely in countries where the master’s is the clinical requirement, but there is no other training available for them to advance,” said Dr. Bray.  

In addition, because the online program covers such a wide area of topics, OCA recruited top specialists and built an outstanding international faculty of educators.

“Building DE 2.0 and seeing that educational delivery mode continue was a huge accomplishment. I'm so proud that we were able to do that,” said Dr. Bray.  

From his arrival until 2016, Dr. Bray continued to build and improve the OCA programs, including filling in for a faculty vacancy by taking on the dual assignment of being the director of PEI for four years. But once again, his career path was about to change, this time because something unexpected happened. One of his faculty hires, Jonette Owen, AuD ‘03, MHA, FNAP, became his best friend and the two eventually decided to explore a relationship.  

 After seven years as dean, including four with dual assignments and personnel shortages in administration, faculty, and staff, he made the decision to prioritize his personal life and embrace the opportunity for a meaningful relationship with Dr. Owen.

“Also, I wasn’t going to lose our coordinator of Clinical Education and a key faculty member and risk our successful program imploding. If I stayed on as dean, she would no longer be able to function as one of our faculty members and would have been assigned to the clinic, full-time, reporting to the Operations Department, outside of Academic Affairs. This was not an acceptable option,” he said.  

Although he would stay with the University in a faculty position, Dr. Bray stepped down as dean of OCA in 2016. The two would eventually marry. Dr. Owen is currently the associate dean of Clinical Education within OCA.  

“There’s no doubt we made the right decision,” said Dr. Bray. “It cost me my administrative position, but it kept the college intact, and the University allowed me to land in another place, which created new opportunities outside of Salus in national leadership positions. I now have an excellent relationship and marriage and an exceptional stepdaughter. And, yes, it's a win.”  

He continues in his belief that the Audiology program remains one of the top in the world.

“By the time our students apply for the fourth-year externships, they're ready. They have strong clinical skills in place,” said Dr. Bray. “We are routinely placing our fourth-year students at the best audiology clinics around the country. They are completing their education at high-quality sites, especially major medical centers. And, that is the launching pad to a great career for them.”   

Since stepping down as dean, Dr. Bray has focused on teaching, research, and service and was promoted to professor. He has become more involved in advocating for the profession, at both the state and national levels. He has been heavily involved with leadership in the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA), including a presidential year in 2021. In his service to the National Academies of Practice (NAP), an organization dedicated to advancing interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborative practice, he is currently serving his third term on the Executive Committee, with a fourth term starting in 2025.   

Dr. Bray acknowledged the significant institutional changes resulting from Salus University’s merger with Drexel University. He admitted the transition has been bittersweet for him.

“I joined Salus in 2009, one year after PCO, with the collaboration of the (then) School of Audiology, transitioned from a College into a multi-disciplinary, healthcare-focused University,” he said. “While it’s difficult to see the original Salus path come to an end, I remain optimistic about the opportunities ahead.” 

He reflected on his dedication to building and leading the nation’s only College of Audiology, showcasing the potential of a professional-school model as a strong alternative to the traditional graduate-school approach.  

Although the autonomous College of Audiology will transition into a new structure within Drexel by 2025, the Osborne name will remain.  

“But the Drexel merger does offer a path forward to sustain our programs and continue the high-level education we offer, and that is a promising future for our current and future students,” Dr. Bray said.