Sterling Sheffield, PhD, AuD, CCC-A

he/him/his, Associate Professor of Audiology

About

Sterling Sheffield is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. He earned an Au.D. in Audiology at the University of Iowa in 2011 with his externship at Mayo Clinic Rochester. He then completed his Ph.D. in Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University in 2016 while working in the clinic at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. After his PhD he was post-doctoral research audiologist at Walter Reed Military Medical Center and ten an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida before joining the faculty at Western Washington University. Dr. Sheffield's research focuses on speech perception and spatial hearing in complex environments, including with hearing aids, cochlear implants, and bilingualism. More recent work has focused on over-the-counter hearing aids.

Research Interests

  • Speech perception, cochlear implants, hearing aids, spatial hearing, bilingualism

Current Courses

Undergraduate

  • CSD 372: Anatomy, Physiology and Disorders of the Auditory System
  • CSD 462: Audio Testing

Graduate

  • CSD 561: Advanced Audiology
  • CSD 571: Hearing Aids I
  • CSD 572: Hearing Aids II
  • CSD 587: Cochlear Implants

Selected Publications

Dr. Sheffield's publications can be found here in PubMed.

Sheffield, S.W., Jacobs, M., Ellis, C., Gerasimchik, A. (in press). Comparing direct-to-consumer amplification devices to hearing aids: Amplification accuracy for 3 types of hearing loss. American Journal of Audiology.

Sheffield, S.W., Wheeler, H., Brungart, D.S., Bernstein, J.G.W. (2023). The effect of sound localization on auditory-only and audiovisual speech recognition in a simulated multi-talker environment. Trends in Hearing, 227, 23312165231186040.

Sheffield, S.W., Jacobs, M., Ellis, C. (2022). Considerations for the over-the-counter hearing aid delivery model. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 7(6), 1802-1805.

Sheffield, S.W., Goupell, M., Spencer, N., Stakhovskaya, O., & Bernstein, J.G.W. (2020). Binaural optimization of cochlear implants: Discarding frequency content without sacrificing head-shadow benefit. Ear and Hearing, 41(3), 576-590.

Stevenson, R., Sheffield, S. W., Butera, I., Gifford, R., Wallace, M. (2017). Multisensory integration in cochlear implant recipients. Ear and Hearing, 38(5), 521-538.

Holder, J., Sheffield, S. W., Gifford, R. H. (2016). Speech understanding in children with normal hearing: Sound field normative data for BabyBio, BKB-SIN, and QuickSIN. Otology and Neurotology, 37(2), e50-e55.

Sheffield, S. W., Haynes, D. S., Wanna, G. B., Labadie, R. F., Gifford, G. H. (2015). Availability of binaural cues for pediatric bilateral cochlear implant recipients. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 26(3), 289-298.

Sheffield, S. W., Jahn, K., Gifford, R. (2015). Preserved acoustic hearing in cochlear implantation improves speech perception. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 26(2), 145-154.

Sheffield, S. W., & Gifford, R. (2014). The Benefits of Bimodal Hearing: Effect of Frequency Region and Acoustic Bandwidth. Audiology and Neurotology, 19(3), 151-163.