User:CLT6

This user is an employee or contractor of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and will follow conflict of interest guidelines for the articles on NIOSH and its staff and programs. This user's edits are not to be considered official guidance from NIOSH.

Hello! I am Christi Themann. I work on the Noise and Bioacoustics team at the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

My background is in clinical audiology, and I am passionate about promoting hearing health and preventing hearing loss. My work at NIOSH has included animal studies on the effects of impulse noise on hearing, new methods for assessing hearing protector attenuation, and developing effective hearing loss prevention strategies for workers with impaired hearing.  For the past 20 years, I have managed audiometric testing for several large epidemiologic studies including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, and the Reykjavik Study of Healthy Aging for the New Millennium. 

My current research interests are focused on integrating hearing health into overall wellness programs (e.g., through a Total Worker Health^® approach) and translating research findings into appropriate educational materials. I think Wikipedia is an important tool for disseminating information about hearing health to a broad audience, and I hope to contribute in some way to that process.