Tessa Utz 2012-2013 Audiology

Tessa Utz is completing her graduate externship at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).  This coming spring she expects to graduate with her Doctor of Audiology degree from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Tessa is from the small town of Hanover, PA, but Pittsburgh has been her home for the past 8 years.  In 2005, she began her undergraduate work in Communication Science and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh.  Because she has always enjoyed the challenges and rewards of working with children and their families, she focused on gaining experience in pediatrics as an undergraduate student.  She acted as principal investigator of a research project exploring how children, as compared to adults, use phonetic cues in perceiving speech.  In 2008, she was awarded a Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship for her contributions to research.  Her research experience also expands outside the field of Communication Science and Disorders. From 2008 to 2010, she worked as part of a research team in the Department of Psychology, with a goal of identifying early signs of autism in infants and toddlers.

Throughout her undergraduate career, she was twice named a University scholar for her academic achievements. In 2009, she successfully defended her undergraduate thesis and graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree summa cum laude. 

After graduation she began her graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh, under a Pediatric Educational Audiology Grant through the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the US Department of Education. In the fall of 2010 she was awarded the University’s Emeritus Award for outstanding academic achievement at the graduate level.  Throughout her first three years of graduate school, she worked for the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC as a newborn hearing screener.  Working as a member of a team, she interacted with other healthcare professionals and gained experience counseling and communicating with family members of the newborns. Lastly, she has been an active member of the Student Academy of Audiology throughout her graduate education.

Tessa’s goal after graduation is to continue working with children and their families as a pediatric audiologist.  She values the opportunity to work at a pediatric facility where she can be part of both the diagnostic and rehabilitative team for infants and children with hearing loss.