Tremere Faculty Service Award Goes to Audiology Professor
Johnson Martin joined the faculty at USD in 2005 during the launch of the department’s doctoral degree program in audiology. She had previously received her bachelor’s degree in 2000 and master’s degree in 2002 from the department. In addition to teaching and serving as the audiology clinic coordinator, Johnson Martin has participated in service projects and plays an active role in encouraging her students to do likewise.
“Clinical audiologists are in the helping profession,” says Johnson Martin. “We have a passion and commitment to serving above what we are expected to do.”
One group where Johnson Martin devotes time is the South Dakota Special Olympics. Johnson Martin and her students travel to the Olympic Summer Games in Spearfish every year to perform hearing screenings on the athletes in attendance through the organization’s Healthy Hearing program. She also works with SESDAC, a local Vermillion organization that serves disabled individuals, to perform annual hearing screenings and repair hearing aids.
Johnson Martin doesn’t limit her volunteer activities to South Dakota. She has traveled to Tanzania, Africa, to train local physicians, medical students and nurses to evaluate hearing and treat hearing disorders. She hopes to bring a group of USD audiology graduate students to a medical facility in that country next year.
“I encourage our students to serve their communities and I want students to know I practice what I preach,” she says.
The Blair and Linda (Schuller) Tremere Faculty Service Award was established in 2011 by Blair and Linda Tremere of Golden Valley, Minnesota, to encourage and recognize the valuable role that Arts & Sciences faculty play in the lives of their communities and state. All tenure-track and tenured faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are eligible to receive the award. Linda (Schuller) Tremere is a 1970 alumna from the USD School of Business (B.S., Accounting) and a native of Amherst, South Dakota. Blair Tremere, a Sioux Falls native, is a 1968 alumnus from the USD College of Arts & Sciences (B.A., Government/Journalism) and also received his M.A. in Public Administration from USD in 1971.
