Tucci Named Next NIDCD Director

Dr. Debara L. Tucci has been chosen new director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. She is currently professor of surgery and director of the cochlear implant program in the division of head and neck surgery & communication sciences at Duke University. She is expected to join NIH on Sept. 3.

“Dr. Tucci’s rich experience melds basic and clinical research in communication disorders with an impressive clinical and surgical practice in otology and neurotology,” said NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, who made the appointment. “This experience, combined with her leadership roles for numerous scientific and professional organizations, as well as serving previously as an advisor at NIH, makes her ideally suited to lead the NIDCD into the future.”

Tucci will oversee NIDCD’s annual budget of approximately $459 million and lead the institute’s research and training programs in hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech and language. Discoveries in these areas can have a dramatic impact on the lives of the tens of millions of people with deafness and other communication disorders.

Since 1993, Tucci has been on the faculty of Duke University Medical Center, where she co-founded the Duke Hearing Center. She has received continuous NIH funding since beginning her academic career. Her primary research interests focus on addressing barriers to hearing health care for older adults, starting with the primary care setting, and establishing a network of academic and community-based research sites to conduct clinical research in hearing and balance disorders. Tucci also leads NIDCD grants to train and mentor the next generation of clinician investigators in otolaryngology and communication sciences. 

While at NIH, she will continue her work to address hearing loss as a global public health problem in her role as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss.

Tucci is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS). She has served on the AAO-HNS research advisory board, board of directors, executive committee and numerous subcommittees. She has served as president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the American Otological Society and the American Neurotology Society, and is active in numerous other professional societies.

“I want to extend my appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Judith Cooper for her commitment and leadership in serving as the NIDCD acting director after the retirement of long-time director Dr. James F. Battey, Jr., last May,” said Collins. “She has agreed to continue to serve in a leadership role as the NIDCD deputy director.”