FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        March 13, 2007

FIRST ANNUAL RANGER RESEARCH DAY JUST AROUND THE CORNER

            Dr. Stephen Painton, 1969 Northwestern Oklahoma State University graduate, will be the keynote speaker at the first annual Ranger Research Day on Friday, March 30.

            Painton is director of the John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Center and associate professor and undergraduate coordinator for the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, all at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC).

            During Ranger Research Day, students, faculty and staff will display posters outlining research they have performed. Each poster will include an abstract, short introduction, aim of the study, results and discussion.

The posters will be on display in the Student Center Ballroom on the Alva campus from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Painton will speak at the Ranger Research Reception at 2 p.m. in the Ranger Room of the Student Center. The public is invited to both view the posters and attend the reception.

A native of Hardtner, Kan., Painton was reared primarily in Alva, attended Washington Elementary School, Alva Junior High and graduated from Alva High School in 1965.

At Northwestern, he majored in speech and biology, played some baseball and was active in the Student Government Association. While a student there, he was convinced by speech instructor John Barton to pursue a career in audiology.

After completing a master’s degree at OU in education of the deaf, Painton served two years in the U.S. Army. He then returned to OUHSC to begin a doctoral program in audiology.

When his degree was complete, he joined the faculty at Northeastern State University, teaching speech-reading, audiology, exceptional children, speech mechanisms and manual communications. He also developed a graduate program in speech-language pathology to meet American Speech and Hearing Association standards.

Painton also owned and operated the Northeast Oklahoma Hearing Center in Tahlequah for three years, served for one year as audiologist with the W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital and served four years as an audiology consultant with the Cherokee County Health Department while in Tahlequah.

He then became associate professor and chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders at East Tennessee State University. There he taught phonetics, aural rehabilitation and pediatric audiology and administered three degree programs.

From 1990 to the present, Painton has been with OUHSC. Until 1995, he was associate dean of the College of Allied Health, then was named to his current position as clinic director. He oversees all aspects of the audiology and speech-language pathology clinics.

Painton is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Academy of Audiology, American Auditory Society and the Oklahoma Speech and Hearing Association.

He has authored and co-authored a number of articles concerning hearing aids and all aspects of auditory problems and diseases in adults and children.

Painton and his wife Sue have two sons, Randy and Cory. She is the clinical manager of the Columbia-Presbyterian Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Facility in Oklahoma City.

-NW-

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