ALUMNA PROFILE | SUSAN EMMETT ’01
HEEDING THE
Call to Heal
by Max Maddock
In rural Alaska, Dr. Susan Emmett ’01 was examining a three-yearold boy named Anuk. His parents brought him to the clinic because he didn’t seem to speak as much compared to his brothers. Emmett, an otolaryngologist, ear surgeon, researcher, and professor at Duke University School of Medicine, learned that Anuk had suffered from ear infections since he was about four months old. Several rounds of ear infections without proper treatment left him with significant hearing loss. Without treatment, Emmet knew the possible outcomes: Anuk’s speech could lag behind, he would likely do worse in school, his job prospects could be limited, and he might experience social isolation. Unfortunately, hearing loss statistics are grim. Anuk is one of an estimated 1.3 billion people living with hearing loss globally. Over 80 percent of those affected reside in low- and middle-income countries, where there is limited access to ear and hearing care. Dr. Emmett, who is Hutchison’s Distinguished Alumna for 2020, is working to change these disparities. Together with colleagues from around the world, they are striving to create equity in hearing care. HOW DID SHE GET HERE? Seven years after graduating from Hutchison as valedictorian of the Class of 2001, Susan Emmett was living in East Africa, working in Moshi, Tanzania, at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. Emmett was in her third year of medical school at Duke University. She was one of 65 medical students nationwide and the only student in global health to receive the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship that funded her research for a year. She completed her undergraduate work at Princeton University in molecular biology and in the School of Public and International Affairs. Building on her health policy and science in global health. During that year, Emmett observed something that wasn’t getting a lot of attention. “There were many children with hearing loss, and it wasn’t being addressed or even talked about because there were other issues that were taking priority.”
20 | Hutchison
Photograph by Eric Waters
interest in policy fostered at Princeton, Emmett’s research in Tanzania was looking at the intersection of
