Dr. Anita Pikus passed away on July 1, 2007. Dr. Pikus was an adjunct faculty member with A.T. Still University-Arizona School of Health Sciences since the inception of the online program in 2000. She was one of the 31 founding members of the American Academy of Audiology, as well as a founder of the Audiology Foundation of America. Her degrees were from Hunter College, Temple University, and A.T. Still University's Arizona School of Health Sciences. According to Dr. David Goldstein, she is best remembered as a practitioner scientist, who spent much of her career researching and developing protocols for rare and genetic diseases affecting the ear and hearing. According to her husband, Dr. Irwin Pikus, she "put audiology on the map" and played a key role as an advisor in formulating policies and the development of the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders. She was also the founder and first director of the Audiology Clinic at the National Institutes of Health, after beginning her career as a school audiologist and then teaching and practicing audiology at Temple University.
Dr Pikus published many articles about genetics and their role in hearing and balance diseases, with a particular emphasis on the relationship to the entire body, not just the ear in isolation. She was teaching in the distance education programs in both the Arizona School of Health Sciences and Pennsylvania College of Optometry's School of Audiology at the time of her death. She was avidly concerned that audiology develop into a doctoral profession and was a strong advocate for the Audiology Foundation of America's mission to make this occur. In addition to her husband, survivors include a son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
We have lost a good friend and comrade in arms.
The Audiology Foundation of America is establishing a scholarship in her memory. For more information, please visit audfound.org/.
In Memoriam: Anita Pikus
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