About the Author
Arla Melum, MS, CCC-A
Educational Audiologist - Columbia Regional Program
Portland, OR
Ms. Melum, who has a Masters of Science and Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology, worked eleven years as an audiologist/infant-family specialist with deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers at Infant Hearing Resource in Portland, Oregon. As a staff member, she also trained interns through a Federal BEH grant and co-authored "Parent-Infant Communication: A Program of Clinical and Home Training for Parents and Hearing-Impaired Infants, Third Edition (1985). She was a contributor to "Parent-Infant Habilitation", (Schuyler and Rushmer, 1987), a handbook for professionals working with young hearing-impaired children and their families. She also contributed to the "Itinerant Teacher's Handbook" (Bullard, 2003) and the "Family Resource Guide" produced by the Oregon Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program (EHDI, 2004). For the past 21 years, Ms. Melum has worked as an educational audiologist with the Columbia Regional Program in Portland, providing audiological services to deaf and hard of hearing children, ages birth to 21 years. During her 32 years working in the field, she has presented at numerous state and national workshops on a variety of topics and has served on several committees. Most recently, Ms. Melum served as Chairperson of the Oregon Statewide Working Group/Task Force on cochlear implants (1999-2002) and was President of the Oregon AG Bell Association (2005-2007). Ms. Melum also maintains an interest in United States and world history, reading, choral singing, oil painting, golf, traveling and spending time with her two daughters (ages 17 and 21 years) and other family and friends.