Doug Sladen

Dr. Doug Sladen earned his bachelor’s (’92) and master’s (’94) degrees from Western Washington University. He then worked as an audiologist for several years before returning to complete doctoral studies. He completed his Ph.D. in Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University in 2006 where he stayed as a Research Associate until 2008. Following his time at Vanderbilt, Dr. Sladen was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin (2008 to 2011), Director of the Cochlear Implant Program, Mayo Clinic (2011 to 2017) and Associate Professor at Western Washington University (2017 to 2024).

Dr. Sladen’s early work was centered on pediatric audiology and he has a special interest in advocating for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. In 2022/2023 he worked alongside an advocacy group in Washington state where they successfully lobbied for legislation requiring insurance companies pay for hearing aids for adults and children.

Dr. Sladen’s research is centered on cochlear implantation among children and adults. Specifically, Dr. Sladen has published and presented on cochlear implant outcomes related to speech perception, localization, and overall health-related quality of life. Most recently he has been using a virtual reality (VR) test environment to examine outcomes among children and adults with single-sided deafness who have cochlear implants.