December 2012 – Where Are They Now?

Hello CCTA members! My name is Nicole Conrad, the daughter of Dennis Conrad, a member of CCTA and owner of Conrad and Son Trucking. I’m fortunate to have been a recipient of the Continuing Student Scholarship in 2003.

In 2005, I graduated summa cum laude from San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Continuing my education, I received a Doctor of Audiology degree from the University California, San Diego and San Diego State University joint doctoral program in 2009.

After completing my Audiology fellowship training at California Ear Institute, I practiced as a clinical Audiologist in the San Francisco Bay Area for two years prior to embarking on a slightly different path as an intraoperative Neurophysiologist. In March 2012, after several months of studying and expanding my knowledge of neurophysiologic monitoring, I passed the Certification Examination in Neurophysiologic Intraoperative Monitoring.

Soon I discovered I am passionate about my role in both the clinical and surgical setting. Fortunately, it did not take long to find a good balance between these two disciplines. I currently spend part of my time as an Audiologist at a private medical practice providing comprehensive services for diagnostic audiology, hearing devices, auditory osseo-integrated implantable devices, and cochlear implants to patients of all ages. The remainder of my time is spent as a surgical Neurophysiologist at various hospitals throughout the Bay Area. My primary responsibility is to monitor the integrity of important neural structures during surgery, in addition to providing functional guidance to both the surgeon and anesthesiologist throughout the procedure.

In the relatively near future, I plan to sit for another written and oral examination in order to obtain higher credentials within this field, Diplomate of the American Board of Neurophysiologic Monitoring, and hopefully transition into more of a supervisory position.

My professional career has been tremendously rewarding. I wouldn’t be where I am today without programs such as the CDTOA Scholarship Fund Program which played an important role in helping me achieve my educational and career goals. I’d like to thank the members of CCTA and the scholarship committee for this wonderful program.