Susan Emmett

Why you should listen

Susan Emmett is an ear surgeon and public health expert who develops evidence-based solutions to address preventable hearing loss.  She studies novel pathways for prevention and applies digital innovations such as mobile screening and telemedicine to extend access to care to even the most remote communities. Collaboration across disciplines and countries is central to Emmett's research, fueling a global effort to address a neglected public health concern. 

Emmett serves as Assistant Professor of Surgery and Global Health at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA. She has been an invited speaker at more than 20 international and national conferences and has authored numerous articles on hearing health in leading medical journals. She consults for the World Health Organization and leads the advocacy efforts of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health. Emmett spends much of her time in remote communities in northwest Alaska, where she co-leads a randomized trial to address childhood hearing loss funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. While at home in North Carolina, she provides medical and surgical care to patients with hearing loss and trains the next generation of medical students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows in global hearing health research. She was named a TED Fellow in 2017.