The Hearing Journal Entrepreneurship Spotlight
Vol.75 Issue 12, December 2022
“Meet Michelle Hu, AuD”
Dr. Hu: Hi there! My name is Michelle Hu, and I’ve been a pediatric audiologist for over 12 years working specifically with the diagnosis, hearing amplification, cochlear implant evaluation, programming, and aural rehabilitation. Growing up, I always knew I wanted to pursue a profession where I could truly help improve others’ quality of life. I constantly went back and forth between medicine, law, and social work. Something unique about me is that I grew up hard of hearing. I was identified with bilateral mild/moderate sensorineural when I was about 3 years old, fit with hearing aids soon after, and today utilize bilateral cochlear implants. Because I have Pendred syndrome and enlarged vestibular aqueducts (EVA), my hearing got progressively worse over time. During my senior year of college, I had another sudden drop in hearing. I was sitting in the waiting room with my mom when she turned to me and said, “You’d make a good audiologist since you’d know how your patients were feeling.”
The rest is history. I threw my law school applications away and pivoted to looking at audiology programs. Thank goodness I had taken many pre-medicine biology and anatomy courses, which lent to a good background for our physiology courses. My undergraduate degrees were in chemistry and sociology.
