Megan Knoetze (25), from South Africa, is a PhD student pursuing her degree at the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She also works part-time as a clinical supervisor at a pediatric hearing aid clinic, where she supports children with hearing loss. Additionally, Megan volunteers at the hearX Foundation, a non-governmental organization that provides hearing care services in underserved communities, focusing especially on women and children.
Megan was awarded a postgraduate bursary for her master's degree in audiology and graduated with distinction. During her community service year at a rural hospital in Standerton, South Africa, she became acutely aware of the limited resources and lengthy waiting lists for hearing aids. This motivated her to pursue a PhD degree with the intention of addressing these disparities.
Megan's doctoral research focuses on understanding the various barriers preventing people, especially women and children with hearing loss, from seeking help and adopting hearing aids. She aims to develop targeted interventions to reduce delays in seeking help and increase hearing aid adoption. Her ultimate goal is to improve global access to hearing healthcare by partnering with healthcare groups, policymakers, and technology innovators for impactful solutions. Her work aligns with the priorities of the University of Pretoria’s WHO collaborating center for the prevention of hearing loss, where she studies and further positions her contributions for widespread scalable impact. She has published four peer-reviewed articles in leading subject journals and has delivered eight international conference presentations.
