Dr. Ronald K. Sommers, CCC-SLP/A
Educational Background:
| B.S., Kent State University, 1952, Speech and Hearing |
| M.A., Northwestern University, 1953 |
| Ed.D., University of Pittsburgh, Special Education with Emphasis on Communication Disorders |
Professional experiences:
A total of 15 years of Public School participation and direction of county programs for children with communication disorders. Eight of these were in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, working as an educational audiologist, and seven in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, directing a staff 46 Speech-Language Pathologists and 3 Educational Audiologists. Also part of Dr. Sommer's responsibility was mainstreaming children with hearing loss and directing an oral school for the deaf (Lansdale School for the Deaf).
After 25 years of university service as a professor in Audiology and
Speech-Language Pathology, (two at Temple University and 23 at Kent State
University), he retired in 1993. Subsequently, he was hired to develop
new graduate training programs and wrote the original grant proposal for the
establishment of a Regional Infant Hearing Program while serving as a
consultant to the Children's Hospital of Akron, OH. He served 6 years as the
Director of this program. In the year 2000, the Ohio Department of
Health funded 9 more Regional Infant Programs and all regions of Ohio
receive services for deaf and hard of hearing children ages 0-3 years and
their families. He is currently working as a consultant on two funded
projects, one of which is the Auditory-Options Project, and the second is a
U.S. Office of Special Education Personnel preparation grant which trains
educational audiologists.