LOS ANGELES - John Tracy Clinic's Board of Directors announced today that Barbara F. Hecht, Ph.D., has been elected as the Clinic's next president, effective September 1, 2003. The Clinic, founded in 1942 by Louise Tracy, wife of actor Spencer Tracy, is a pioneering center for parents of young children with hearing losses. Dr. Hecht, the Clinic's vice president of audiology, counseling and teacher education, will hold the post of president elect during the transition. Dr. Hecht succeeds Dr. James H. Garrity, who is retiring after 25 years of service with the private, non-profit education center. "I am extremely honored to be chosen to continue the critical work of Mrs. Tracy in helping parents open the doors of communication for their young deaf and hard-of-hearing children throughout the world," says Dr. Hecht. "During my tenure," she adds, "I intend to bolster the Clinic's leadership role in family-centered deaf education and early intervention." Dr. Hecht received a bachelor's degree in linguistics from Harvard University and her doctorate in linguistics and child language development from Stanford University. She is a clinical professor of special education at the University of Southern California (USC). Formerly a faculty member in UCLA's Special Education and Educational Psychology Doctoral Program, Dr. Hecht has been with John Tracy Clinic since 1992. Over the last 11 years, she has supervised a multidisciplinary department of professional staff, while taking the lead in working with local pediatricians and hospitals to implement California's Newborn Hearing Screening Law; carrying out important technological upgrades in the Clinic's Audiologic Assessment Program; and overseeing the development of the nation's first, online accredited master's degree and teaching credential in deaf education in cooperation with the USC/Rossier School of Education. John Tracy Clinic, which celebrates its 60th Anniversary this year, is supported entirely by individual donations, bequests and grants. All services are free. For more information, visit the Clinic's website at www.jtc.org, or contact Mary Ann Bell, Vice President for Development and Communications, John Tracy Clinic, 806 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007, (213) 748-5481, ext. 229.
