Gail S. Donaldson

Dr. Gail S. Donaldson serves as Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at Appalachian State University, a position she assumed in 2017 after 13 years at University of South Florida and 10 years at University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. Her career spans over 30 years in academic audiology with continuous NIH-funded research in hearing science.

Her educational background includes:

• Postdoc (1991) in Auditory Physiology, Duke University
• Ph.D. (1990) in Audiology, University of Virginia
• M.Ed. (1981) in Audiology, University of Virginia
• A.B. (1974) in Mathematics, Duke University

Dr. Donaldson's research program centers on auditory perception mechanisms in cochlear implant users, with particular expertise in how bimodal hearing (combined electric-acoustic input) affects speech understanding. She investigates the critical roles of temporal continuity, spectral resolution, and top-down linguistic processing through meticulously controlled simulations that isolate specific acoustic cues. Her work bridges basic auditory science with clinical rehabilitation applications, directly informing hearing aid and cochlear implant programming strategies.

Analysis of her 2013-2016 publications reveals consistent focus on vowel/consonant perception under degraded listening conditions, with increasing emphasis on cognitive-linguistic factors in later work. Key methodological trends include systematic manipulation of noise interruption patterns, examination of low-frequency harmonicity benefits, and quantification of contextual facilitation effects in interrupted speech.

Her honors include:

• BCBS-NC Distinguished Professorship
• ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology

Dr. Donaldson has secured sustained NIH research funding as PI/Co-PI for investigations into cochlear implant speech perception mechanisms. Her mentorship approach emphasizes experimental rigor in auditory psychophysics, with students contributing to publications as co-authors. Current opportunities focus on extending her established paradigms to examine individual differences in cue weighting and neural plasticity in bimodal users.

She leads a specialized auditory perception research group that utilizes advanced simulation systems to model cochlear implant processing, maintaining strong collaborations with clinical audiology programs for participant recruitment and translational validation of findings.