Dr. Colleen Le Prell is the Emily and Phil Schepps Professor of Hearing Science and the Head of the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing. She is a preeminent researcher in the field of hearing loss prevention, with internationally recognized expertise in noise-induced hearing disorders and ototoxic injury. She leads the NOISE Lab at UT Dallas Callier Center, with a research program focused on prevention of hearing loss using investigational medicines, hearing protection devices, and other interventions. Her work has received funding from government agencies, industry, and philanthropic support.

Dr. Le Prell has led both NIH-funded investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored Phase II clinical trials evaluating investigational medicines for possible prevention of noise-induced hearing loss.

Dr. Le Prell routinely serves the scientific community by contributing her expertise in this area. She serves as an academic leader for the Department of Defense Hearing Center of Excellence Pharmaceutical Interventions for Hearing Loss work group. She is an invited member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Meaningful Outcome Measures in Adult Hearing Health Care and she serves as an invited member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Hearing Loss Prevention Cross Sector Council. She is the incoming Chair of the Auditory System Study Section for the National Institute of Health Center for Scientific Review. In addition to the above service to US government agencies, she is an invited member of the World Health Organization Make Listening Safe working group.

Dr. Le Prell has also served in leadership positions on the Executive Council of the National Hearing Conservation Association, and she has served as an invited member of task forces and working groups for professional organizations including the American Academy of Audiology and the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.

Dr. Le Prell is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and the International Journal of Audiology, and she serves on the Editorial Board for the journal Hearing Research.

Dr. Le Prell’s extensive experience in reviewing scientific proposals and managing peer-review processes underscores her expertise and dedication to fostering high-quality research, and she routinely serves as a resource and for others at UT Dallas both in organized grant work groups and when individual feedback is requested of her.

As the Faculty Director and Co-Director of the UT Dallas Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), Dr. Le Prell seeks to support researchers across disciplines in their efforts to bridge scientific research and clinical applications to improve health outcomes