Experts

Monika Lehnhardt-Goriany was born in Vienna and graduated from the University Alma Mater Rudolfina. She obtained her PhD in philology, psychology and philosophy.

During her professional career she has held various positions in German, American and Swedish companies. 1987 she established Cochlear Europe in Basel, Switzerland. She gained broad experience in all aspects of treatment for hearing impaired people – various products (e.g. cochlear implants, bone conduction hearing aids, middle ear implants), surgical interventions, audiological services (e.g. hearing screenings, diagnostics, fitting of speech processors), rehabilitation concepts and methods and economical aspects (cost-effectiveness and cost-utility studies) over a period of more than 20 years.)
Her extensive traveling through Europe, the US, Australia and most countries of CIS strengthened her multi-cultural competence. Her language skills (German, English, Russian, French and Polish) are essential in establishing direct contacts to key opinion people in the field (surgeons, audiologists, speech therapists, surdopedagogs, economists and politicians).

Since 2002, she has been Chairwoman of the Lehnhardt Foundation.

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Carsten Gregor studierte an der Universität Osnabrück (Lehramt an Grund-, Haupt- und Realschulen) und nach zwischenzeitlicher Arbeit als Lehrer setzte er sein Studium an der Universität Hamburg auf Lehramt an Sonderschulen fort. Seit 2006 ist er als Hörgeschädigtenpädagoge am LBZH Osnabrück tätig. Einsatz: Lehrer in der Primarstufe, Pädagogischen Audiologie, Hörfrühförderung, Mobilen Dienst „Hören“ und Sonderkindergarten „Hören“.
Seit 2015 – Koordinator „Pädagogische Audiologie“.

Weitere Qualifikationen
2019 Zertifikat „Qualifizierung Pädagogische Audiologie“ [Berufsverband Deutscher Hörgeschädigtenpädagogen (BDH) & Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Leiterinnen und Leiter der Bildungseinrichtungen für Gehörlose und Schwerhörige (BUDIKO)]

Tätigkeiten in der Fort- und Ausbildung
Multiplikatorenschulungen für Eltern, Schulen, vorschulische Einrichtungen, Ämter (z. B. Schulträger, Gesundheitsämter, Eingliederungshilfe), Behörden, Akustiker, Ärzte und Kolleginnen/Kollegen des LBZH Os im Auftrag des Beratungszentrums für Inklusion und Teilhabe (BIT)

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2010-2013 employed at the pedagogical-audiological Centre for counseling and early intervention in Munich
2013  has been working at the Interregional Early Support Centre for children with hearing impairment of the BLWG e.V. (professional association for people with hearing and speech impairment) in Munich

– Work content:
o Early Intervention Mobile Service in the southeast of Upper Bavaria
o Caring for children with all degrees of hearing loss as well as CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) and their families
o Since 2015 – implementation and development of the pre-school group “Höronauten”

EDUCATION
2008 Diploma in special needs education at the Catholic Institute of Applied Sciences for Social Work, Berlin.
Diploma thesis in cooperation with the integrative Childcare Center
2007 practical semester at a multi-faceted Centre of Early Intervention in Berlin
2006 practical semester at an integrative kindergarten with a bilingual concept (sign and spoken languages), Berlin

Tobias Fischer, MSc was the first child in Germany to receive a cochlear implant. The surgery was performed by Prof. Ernst Lehnhardt in 1988.

Tobias was born in 1984 in Wetzlar, Germany. At the age of three, he lost his hearing after contracting bacterial meningitis.

In his spare time, he provides support to other CI users and hearing impaired people as a Cochlear volunteer and as a member of the Austrian Cochlear Implant Society (ÖCIG).

Colleen has spent the last 33 years working in the field of cochlear implants. During that time she has had the great fortune to work with families of newborns diagnosed with significant hearing losses all the way through ages and abilities up to adults in their 90’s in their cochlear implant journeys.

Colleen’s role as an audiologist and speech pathologies has predominantly been working clinically, managing clinical practice and research within one of the largest CI clinics in Australia. She is passionate about family and patient centred care and is a staunch believer that CI recipients and their families must be given more opportunities for autonomy of care. After 8 years of working toward her PhD, Colleen is soon to submit her thesis which has focussed on the use of telepractice in a CI model of care which has taken a very different turn in direction to what she originally intended.
A fun fact is that Colleen spent a year working with Dr Lehnhardt in Basel during which time she visited some of the emerging centres beginning in eastern Germany and Europe.
When Colleen is not working as a research coordinator in the Asia Pacific region for Cochlear, she is spending time with her dog on the beach, or catching up on the latest tik tok trends with her 3 young adult children.

Gisela Batliner, MA, clinical linguist and SLP, holds an international Montessori diploma and has years of experience in early intervention and diagnostics of children with hearing loss and multiple impairments, with the focus on parent guidance. She teaches extensively in pedagogy and qualification enhancement, provides mentorship, and publishes articles and books.

1983-1990 – Speech and language department of the Munich Children’s Center
1990-1995 – Institute for phoniatrics and pediatric audiology of the pediatric clinic in Datteln
1995-1998 – Department for early intervention in the school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Augsburg
1996-2012 – Private SLP practice in Munich focusing on hearing impairments in early childhood

Central work since transferring the practice in 2012: qualification enhancement lectures, courses, mentorship, and counseling.
Her work is based on the Natural Auditory Oral Approach (NAOA – Morag Clark).

Marina Gureva, teacher-defectologist (surdopedagogue) of the highest qualification (26 years of experience), supervisor of internship for students at the Herzen State Pedagogical University in the Children’s City Surdology Center, St. Petersburg, expert at the Lenhardt Academy.

In 1996, she graduated from Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. Correctional pedagogy faculty, specialty “elementary school teacher of the deaf and hearing impaired, pre-school teacher-defectologist”. Since November 1995 she has been working at the State Centre of Vocational Education and Training №1. She has experience working with children of different ages (from 2 to 18 years). In the rehabilitation department of SCVL Nr.1 she gives remedial and developmental classes to children with hearing loss of the senior preschool age, accompanies groups of schoolchildren with hearing loss, studying in mass and speech schools (1-3 classes), provides consultations and training for parents. She has extensive experience working with children after cochlear implantation (CI).

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Ulrike Rülicke is a general education and special education teacher who has devoted her more than 30-year career to the education and inclusion of hearing-impaired children.

U. Rülicke received her first degree (in German, Physical Education and Religious Studies) as a general education teacher. Rülicke received her first degree at the Graz Pedagogical Academy. From 1987 to 1990 she finished her postgraduate diploma in teaching children with disabilities. In the 1990’s Dr. U. Rülicke developed her specialty in the direction of defectology-super-pedagogy and counselling for hearing-impaired children and their families.

The first step in Mrs. Rülicke’s career was teaching in special schools (1984-1992). From 1992-2005 she worked on the inclusion of hearing-impaired children and teenagers in mainstream schools and early intervention centers in Switzerland. She supervised a partial integration class and an audio-educational early intervention center in Uster, Switzerland.

Since 2006, Ulrike has headed the counseling center ‘dazugehoeren‘ in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Austria, which serves mainly hearing-impaired children, adolescents and adults.

In 2008 her work was honored with the prestigious Schmid-Giovannini Award. Schmid-Giovannini Award.

Anke Lesinski-Schiedat, M.D., PhD

• Physician since 1993
• ENT specialist since 1997
• “Genetics counseling – related to ENT” since 2016
• Senior Consultant ENT clinic & German Hearing Center / Medical University of
• Hannover (Chair: Lenarz, T., PhD, MD) since 1997
• Medical head of the audiological department and Cochlear Implant department of the ENT clinic since 1997
•  Medical head of the German Hearing Center of the ENT clinic since 2003