Better Hearing gains new audiologist

Dr. Shawn S. Key graduated from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas, where he received a bachelor of science degree in communication disorders in 2001, and his doctor of audiology (Au.D.) degree in 2005.

Key is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and received his Certificate of Clinical Competency from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. He has worked with a diverse patient population, diagnosing and treating a variety of hearing and balance disorders. His patients have been pleased with his level of care, expertise, counseling and patience.

While Key’s patients in Texas are sad to see him go, he is excited to be working with Dr. Gretchen McGee at Better Hearing and Balance in the Ozark Mountains, and he is looking forward to helping improve Northwest Arkansas residents’ quality of life by meeting all their audiological needs. Key starts in September.

During a visit to Eureka Springs many years ago, Key said, he fell in love with the beauty of the Ozarks, and he has longed to make Northwest Arkansas his home ever since.

“Having access to the many of the amenities of city life, combined with a small-town charm and down-to-earth people makes the Bentonville and Bella Vista area a great place to call home.”

When asked how he chose audiology as a profession, Key joked, “I always knew what I wanted to do, it just kept changing!”

Starting college as a theater arts major for a couple of years, he decided to change to a more stable career as his student loans were growing.

“I had always wanted to enter the helping professions, to make a difference in people’s lives, specifically, something in the healthcare field,” Key said.

After considering a nursing career, he decided to major in psychology. While working at a parttime job, a customer commented on his speaking voice and told him he would make a great speech-language pathologist, or speech therapist.

“I suddenly got butterflies, because my cousin who is 18 years younger than me, was about three years old and still not talking,” Key said.

He applied for the communication disorders undergraduate program but found that it was a very competitive program, and took a couple of years to gain acceptance.

He convinced his aunt and uncle to get his cousin’s hearing tested, and a profound hearing loss was diagnosed in both ears. Hearing aids were ordered. As the only male student in his class, an audiology graduate student clinician doing an internship at the clinic where his cousin was being fitted for hearing aids recognized Key.

“She said, ‘You were thinking speech right?’ and when I said yes, she replied, ‘Come learn some audiology.’ Then she introduced me to my cousin’s audiologist as a potential audiology student.”

The audiologist then put hearing aids on his cousin, took Key into the testing suite and showed him the equipment, then told him to talk into the microphone to see if his cousin could hear through the speakers with her new hearing aids.

“I said, ‘Fynlan, can you hear me?’ and she replied ‘Shawn! I heared you!’ ” Key said. “I was bought hook, line and sinker. I knew at that moment that if I could help a child hear their parents say I love you or help a grandfather hear his grandkids, I knew that I would be making the difference that I wanted to make in this world and that I would have my dream job.”