A Bruton Conference
Date: Friday, August 7, 2026
Time: 7:30 AM – 3:35 PM
Location: Callier Center for Communication Disorders – Glorig Auditorium
1966 Inwood Rd, Dallas, Texas 75235
Cost: Free (Registration is required)
Registration: Registration coming soon
Contact: Tiffani Kreybig at 972-883-3003
Course Directors:
- Walter Kutz, MD
- Kim Fiorentino, AuD
Featured Speaker:
- Piotr Skarzynski, MD, PhD
(Sponsored by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Otolaryngology)
Additional Speakers:
- Sarah Crow, BS
- Rance Fujiwara, MD
- Brandon Isaacson, MD
- Prabuddha Bhatarai, PhD student
- Kenneth Lee, MD, PhD
- Walter Kutz, MD
- Andrea Warner-Czyz, PhD
- Sarah Crow, AuD
Course Description
The North Texas Cochlear Implant (CI) Symposium provided an interprofessional program for audiologists, physicians, speech pathologists, and others involved in the care of CI recipients. Topics discussed included outcomes in CI recipients, updated CI candidacy criteria, social and emotional cognition in CI users, and surgical considerations in special populations.
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of the conference, participants should be able to:
- Describe updated cochlear implant candidacy criteria
- Describe cognitive-emotional data in cochlear implant users
- Describe surgical techniques in special populations receiving cochlear implants
Continuing Education
ASHA CE Provider approval and use of the Brand Block does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedures.
The Callier Center is approved by the American Academy of Audiology to offer Academy CEUs for this activity. The program is worth a maximum of .6 CEUs. Academy approval of this continuing education activity is based on course content only and does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedure, or adherence of the event to the Academy’s Code of Ethics. Any views that are presented are those of the presenter/CE Provider and not necessarily of the American Academy of Audiology.
Course Directors
Walter Kutz, MD
Joe Walter Kutz Jr., M.D. is Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and the Department of Neurological Surgery UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Kutz joined The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2007. His clinical interests include diseases of the skull base, acoustic neuroma, cochlear implants, otosclerosis, auditory brainstem implants, and chronic otitis media. After his initial medical education and otolaryngology residency training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Dr. Kutz completed a two-year fellowship in otology and neurotology at the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles.
Dr. Kutz is an investor in Qualia Oto and does not have any relevant non-financial disclosures to report.
Kim Fiorentino, AuD, CCC-A
Kim Fiorentino, Au.D., CCC-A, is an audiologist who specializes in detecting and caring for children with hearing loss. Dr. Fiorentino earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Amherst College and graduated cum laude. She received a doctorate of audiology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Fiorentino works as a pediatric cochlear implant audiologist at the UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders. She conducts cochlear implant candidacy assessments, hearing aid evaluations and fittings, cochlear implant initial activations, and follow-up care. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Dr. Fiorentino does not have any relevant financial or non-financial disclosures to report.
Featured Speaker
Piotr Skarzynski, MD, PhD
Additional Speakers
Sarah Crow, Au.D.
Sarah Crow is a graduate student at The University of Texas at Dallas in the Doctorate of Audiology Program and the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Doctorate of Philosophy Program. She received her Bachelor of Science in Speech-Language Pathology at Texas Christian University. Sarah works in Dr. Warner-Czyz’s Children and Infant Listening Laboratory in partnership with the Callier Center for Communication Disorders. Research in the Children and Infant Listening Laboratory explores how infants, children, and adolescents with hearing loss wearing cochlear implants learn to communicate with others and how communication affects how they feel about themselves. Sarah’s research focuses on how auditory status affects auditory emotion recognition in adolescents with and without hearing loss. She is also interested in exploring the intersectionality of hearing loss and comorbid conditions and how it affects their quality of life and auditory and communication progress.
Dr. Crow received the Callier Center for Communication Disorders Jerger grant and serves on the Student Academy of Audiology chapter relations committee.
Kenneth Lee, MD
Kenneth H. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery at Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in pediatric otolaryngology and serves as Director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program at UT Southwestern and Children’s Health in Dallas and Plano. Dr. Lee earned his medical degree and a doctorate in anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University. He completed a residency in head and neck surgery at Washington University in St. Louis and received advanced training in otolaryngology and pediatric otolaryngology through separate fellowships at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, respectively. Dr. Lee’s research interests include cochlear implantation, sensorineural hearing loss, and spiral ganglion cells.
Dr. Lee has an ownership interest in Qualia Oto and has received a consulting fee from Advanced Bionics. He does not have any relevant non-financial disclosures to report.
Andrea Warner-Czyz, PhD
Dr. Andrea Warner-Czyz, Ph.D., CCC-A, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her research investigates communication and quality of life in children and adolescents who are deaf/hard of hearing and use cochlear implants. Her primary professional goal centers on a whole-person approach, drawing on speech-language pathology, psychology, and audiology, to develop data-driven recommendations to improve social well-being in patients who are deaf/hard of hearing.
Dr. Warner-Czyz does not have any relevant financial disclosures to report. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the American Cochlear Implant Alliance and a member of the Pathways Selection Committee for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
