Drs. Marc Wilcox and Melanie Zimmer

A career spanning three decades drew to a close at the end of September with the retirement of Dr. Marc Wilcox, audiologist at the Henry C. Youngerman Center for Communication Disorders at SUNY Fredonia.

Dr. Wilcox, a Jamestown, native, earned a bachelor’s degree in Speech and Hearing Handicapped and a master’s degree in Audiology from SUNY Fredonia.

Wilcox was appointed Clinical Audiologist at the Youngerman Clinic at Fredonia in 1992, and earned his Doctor of Audiology degree from the University of Arizona in 1996. Since 1992, Wilcox has provided a wide range of audiology services to faculty, staff, students as well as members of the community, covering all ages. Services included hearing evaluations, balance testing, dispensing hearing aids and working with children with hearing impairments. Clients have ranged from 6 months to 106 years of age. “I’ve always enjoyed working with people of all ages, seeking to improve the quality of their life by improving their communication abilities,” Wilcox explained, “whether it is a child developing speech and language, or an elderly person helping them improve and maintain their communication abilities, the satisfaction is the same. I was instrumental in diagnosing an infant with a profound hearing loss who, through the use of a cochlear implant, uses age-appropriate spoken speech and language. At the other end of the spectrum I fit a visually impaired 106-year-old individual with a hearing aid to be able listen to baseball on the radio. Again, improvement in the quality of their life.”

“Dr. Wilcox has been an invaluable member of the Communication Disorders and Sciences department for many years. His knowledge, expertise and customer service have been exceptional over the years,” Youngerman Clinic Director Julie Williams stated. “Marc’s genuineness, dedication, and passion for the field of audiology is reflected daily in working with clients and CDS students. They are always very complimentary about Marc’s services, stating he is knowledgeable, always positive, supportive, and takes the time to answer their questions.”

“Dr. Wilcox has been instrumental in helping our students acquire the audiology hours required for graduation in order to fulfill their academic and clinical requirements,” Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences Chair Kevin Kearns noted.

In addition to his work at the Youngerman Clinic, Wilcox taught undergraduate and graduate audiology courses to students enrolled in the Communication Disorders and Sciences program at Fredonia, and he has mentored doctoral students from the State University at Buffalo.

He also worked with patients at the Buffalo VA Medical Center. Wilcox has provided clinic experiences for Fredonia Communication Disorders students, sharing his philosophy that hearing is the foundation of verbal learning and that exposing students to all ages facilitates their knowledge base in working with persons with hearing impairments.

Wilcox is going to spend his retirement pursuing various hobbies and activities, volunteer service and part time work as an audiologist at UPMC Chautauqua in Jamestown.

The department has welcomed Dr. Melanie Zimmer, a Buffalo native, as the center’s new clinical audiologist. Dr. Zimmer earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Disorders and Sciences from the State University at Buffalo in 2017 and a Doctor of Audiology degree in 2022 from Kent State University as a part of the Northeast Ohio AuD Consortium program. She went on to complete her clinical externship at a large private practice in Buffalo, where she subsequently worked as an audiologist for two years. Zimmer has had a wide range of experiences in the field of audiology. Her primary areas of expertise include the full range of hearing evaluations, hearing aid fitting and Central Auditory Processing Disorder testing. “I have always had a passion for helping people and that has continued into my career. Having a hearing loss can be very isolating, and unfortunately, many people don’t understand what it is like. I love helping people hear again and integrate into social situations they may have been withdrawn from for a while.” Zimmer is excited to continue the outstanding legacy that Wilcox has left the university and community.