René H. Gifford, PhD, CCC-A, is a Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Otolaryngology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is the Director of the Cochlear Implant Program at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center in the Division of Audiology as well as the Director of the Cochlear Implant Research Laboratory. Her NIH-funded research investigates auditory function and spatial hearing as well as electrophysiologic correlates of auditory perception for adults and children with hearing loss using cochlear implants and hearing aids. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and delivered nearly 300 presentations around the world. She was the 2015 recipient of the ASHA Louis M. DiCarlo Award for Recent Clinical Achievement as well as the 2017 recipient of the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research, both awarded for her work in auditory outcomes following hearing preservation cochlear implantation. Dr. Gifford and her husband, Branden, are parents to three boys, Levi, Jacob, and Aidan.
