Principal Investigator
Dr. Peng is the Director of the Functional Hearing Lab in the Center for Hearing Research at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Dr. Peng has multidisciplinary training in engineering and hearing science from her PhD and postdoctoral studies. She uses virtual reality (VR) technologies to understand how children listen in complex indoor environments, with a keen interest in developing solutions to enhance hearing devices fitting outcomes for children with hearing loss.
Lab Manager
Darby Durbin is the Lab Manager and a Research Assistant in the Functional Hearing Laboratory at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Darby graduated from Creighton University in 2024 with her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, minoring in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience with a concentration in Undergraduate Research and Scholarship. She assists in advancing the lab’s research studies through data collection, subject recruitment, data analysis, and general lab upkeep.
Research Audiologist
Victoria Sweeney is a research audiologist in the Functional Hearing Laboratory and in the Clinical Measurement Program at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Victoria completed both her undergraduate degree and AuD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to moving to Omaha, she completed her clinical externship at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Victoria is passionate about learning how children and adults who use hearing devices listen in challenging environments and the development of clinical strategies to improve performance in these environments.
Clinical Audiologist
Jeffrey Simmons is a clinical audiologist who assists with projects in the Functional Hearing Lab. He has been at Boys Town National Research Hospital since he completed his M.A. in Audiology at the University of Northern Colorado in 1996, and he currently serves as Manager of the Cochlear Implant Clinic at BTNRH.
Research Assistant
Trevor Scarlett is a research assistant in the Functional Hearing Laboratory and the Oral & Written Language Laboratory at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Trevor completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Research Intern
Lily Ardinger Stibal is a Research Intern in the Functional Hearing Laboratory at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Lily is a current High School Senior at the Lincoln Science Focus Program. Upon graduation, she plans to major in Psychology or Cognitive Science programs for her undergraduate degree.
Audiology Extern
Chieh Kao is an audiology extern, dividing her time between audiology clinics and the Functional Hearing Laboratory. She completed her doctoral studies on infant perception of emotional voices in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and is now pursuing her Doctor of Audiology degree. Her current research project focuses on the speech development trajectory in pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users by examining various speech scores from pediatric CI patients seen by CI audiologists at Boys Town National Research Hospital.
