ALTWG – Group members

Meet some of the ALT Working Group members

Stuart Whyte (Chair)

Stuart Whyte is an experienced Educational Audiologist and (re)habilitationist with the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service.  Stuart lectures on the University’s MSc Audiology course and is actively involved with research in the field of assistive listening devices. He a Past President of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD) and their current Consultant.  Stuart has worked as a Specialist Advisory Teacher within Sensory Support Teams.  He was Teacher in Charge of a Resourced Provision for children with Sensory Impairment and part of the Leadership Team of a Special School for Deaf Children.

Richard Vaughan 

Richard Vaughan is proud to have played a role in the foundation of the Group in 2004, as Technology Services Manager for the National Deaf Children’s Society.  He currently participates in the Group as a representative of Connevans Limited, manufacturers and suppliers of radio aids and other equipment for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Cate Statham 

Cate is a Teacher of the Deaf and Educational Audiologist, she has worked with deaf children and their families from diagnosis until they leave school, at home and in a variety of educational settings. Finding ways to use technology effectively is an essential and exciting part of the role. She has been involved in joint projects between education and health services looking at the use of radio aids with babies and toddlers.

Maria Militello 

Maria has worked as an Audiology Technician for the Children’s Sensory Team in Harrow Local Authority since 2012.  She works closely with the Advisory Teachers to supply assistive listening devices to the children and young people on our caseload who would benefit from this equipment.  Some aspects of her role include: training the relevant people on the use and management of the equipment; visiting educational settings to troubleshoot; replace or upgrade equipment and keeping track of all the equipment that we have in the department.  Her role also involves keeping up to date on any new technologies relating to this equipment.

James Mander 

James is an experienced and dedicated Clinical Physiologist working with implantable devices, hearing instruments and wireless technology.  He has an extensive network and knowledge from working with the NHS departments, the private sector.  James now works for the national charity the Ewing Foundation.

Jeremy Hine 

Jeremy has been a member of the Working Group since it was established in 2004, initially as a representative for the National Deaf Children’s Society. He is privileged to have worked for two manufacturers in the industry before returning to the charity sector with Ewing Foundation as a Specialist Audiology Technician.

Sharon De Souza 

Sharon was at the first ever meeting of the group in 2004 when she worked on the MCHAS programme at the University of Manchester.  She has been working for Oticon Ltd since and represents this company on the group.

Hannah Cooper 

Hannah is a paediatric audiologist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and a lecturer in Audiology at the UCL Ear Institute. She has been involved in joint projects between education and health services looking at the use of radio aids with babies and toddlers.

Lisa Bull 

Lisa has been a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf since 1997.  She spent a number of years working at Mary Hare School for the Deaf where her subject specialism was Mathematics.  In 2004 she qualified as an Educational Audiologist and continued working in the dual roles as ToD and Ed Aud.  In 2013 Lisa joined the Berkshire Sensory Consortium Service where she currently works as Educational Audiologist and QToD.  Lisa is also a Module Leader on the Mary Hare/University of Hertfordshire MSc Educational Audiology.

The four UK nations and the Republic of Ireland are represented on the group.