ABOUT US

David Pither grew up in country Victoria. He began working as an audiometrist for Marcus Tarrant in Melbourne in 1976. In those days, it was common for country clients to have their hearing tested and impressions taken in the morning and then fitted with their custom earmoulds and hearing aids later that day. His first mission trip was in 1989 to the Pacific Island of Vanuatu with a group from his church. Over the next five years, David established visiting ENT and audiology services in Vanuatu and the first hearing clinic in Port Vila. His passion for helping people hear in developing countries saw him visit and establish hearing services or providing training in several countries, including the Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Malawi and the Dominican Republic. For over twenty years David would undertake two mission trips a year. In 1998 David, Peter Bartlett and friends and family established EARS Inc. as an Association and shortly after as a registered charity. For the last decade he has run earmould manufacturing workshops for the Coalition for Global Hearing Health Conferences. After 44 years, David retired from hearing aid practice in early 2020 and stepped down as President of EARS Inc. in August 2020. He is looking forward to undertaking more overseas field work as COVID allows.

David has been the Vice President of Ears Inc since August 2020. He has over 20 years of managerial and project delivery experience in the oil and gas industry, in Australia and internationally. David is currently Executive General Manager for Upstream Production Solutions, and has worked for engineering and project delivery services companies and EPC delivery including Wood (previously Wood Group), Production Services Network and Worley. David brings capital project delivery experience, business management and planning expertise.

Nick Philpott was born and raised in Melbourne where he currently resides, and joined the EARS Inc Board as Treasurer in May 2019. He has a double degree in Business and Arts and over 20 years experience in the Financial Services industry, currently as an Investment Operations Manager. After being aware of the work of EARS Inc for many years, Nick was inspired to become more formally involved to help support the incredible work being done by staff and volunteers, providing critical hearing services to those in the world who need it most. Nick is married with two children, and speaks Japanese as a second language.

Lois Grant lives in Melbourne and has a background in audiology and deaf education. For over 30 years she has been involved in audiology and other fields of deafness in developing countries as well as Australia. After two short trips of about six weeks to Malawi in 2012 and 2015 to help out friends Pete and Bec Bartlett, she and her husband Ian moved to Lilongwe for a year in 2016/17 to support the ABC audiology training program and service delivery. Lois joined the EARS Inc. Board in 2020 to help keep the vision and work going, and to support others to fulfill their dream of making a difference to people’s lives by improving ear health and hearing in emerging economies. She knows how important it is for someone to hear and communicate, and values how EARS Inc. brings hope and shares Jesus love in words and deeds to so many around the world. Lois enjoys time with her grandchildren and baking sourdough bread, reading, walking with friends and chatting over coffee.

Wesley Ong is an audiologist and the founder of Fidelity Hearing Centre, a south-east Queensland company focussed on enabling people to achieve greater everyday experiences by better hearing. Wes is a member of Independent Audiologists Australia and served on the executive board from 2017-2019. He has been involved with EARS Inc. since 2015 and was appointed President in 2020. He has a wife and three daughters and loves to perform as a drummer whenever he gets the chance.

Rebecca Bartlett committed her life to God when she was 20. A poster about audiology sparked her interest, and she moved to Ballarat (country Victoria) after finishing her audiology degree at Melbourne University. In 1995, during a visit to Papua New Guinea (PNG) to provide audiology services and training, she saw the desperate need for hearing care in developing countries. She married Pete in 1997, also an audiologist with a passion to combine Christian mission with audiology. Two years later, they spent six months supporting hearing clinics, fitting hearing aids and providing training to local workers in the Philippines, PNG, Cambodia and India. In 2004/05 they moved with their two young daughters to Lae in PNG for six months, and discovered the benefits of longer-term support. The Lord opened doors to go to Malawi, an African country with no audiologists and no audiology services, and in 2010, Bec, Pete and their three daughters (3, 7 and 9 years old) moved to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. During the next six years they built a fully equipped hearing clinic, trained many locals to test hearing and fit hearing aids, developed an audiology degree course and established an outreach audiology program. The Malawi project is now run almost entirely by Malawi staff, and Bec continues to oversee and manage the project from Australia, visiting twice a year when it’s possible.

Dr. Donna Carkeet completed her audiology degree at Macquarie University in Sydney. In 2002, David Pither convinced Donna to visit the Dominican Republic (DR) to provide further training and assistance to his new project. She felt called to move to the Dominican Republic in 2005 and spent seven challenging years establishing and running an audiology service and developing a two-year Diploma of Audiology. Donna needed to learn Spanish so she could write the course materials and teach in the local language. Today, three hearing clinics are now running in DR, and a former graduate of her audiology program is their clinical director. She continues to provide long distance assistance to her graduates who are working in DR as well as Haiti, Fiji and Ethiopia. In the last few years Donna has helped develop the audiology department of the Frank Hilton Organisation in Fiji. This department now provides the only comprehensive paediatric audiology service in Fiji, as well as the only electrophysiological assessments and neonatal screening services in the country. Since 2016 she has also been involved in a new project in Papua New Guinea. This ambitious project aims to develop local capacity and services in five regional health hubs around Papua New Guinea. She has two students who are currently under supervision to achieve their Diploma in Audiometry. In her rare spare time, when not catching up with friends and family and having a laugh, she likes to read, binge watch and generally rest.

Dr. Jenna Vallario is an Audiologist and a full-time audiology lecturer at African Bible College Hearing Clinic and Training Center. Jenna grew up in Florida, USA and graduated with her Doctorate in Audiology from the University of South Florida in May 2019. She has been involved with EARS Inc since 2017 and is currently a long-term volunteer with EARS Inc in Malawi, Africa. Jenna is married to Blake Montgomery, who is an Occupational Therapist working with children with disabilities and also a volunteer lecturer for the audiology department at African Bible College. In their free time, they enjoy being outside and exploring their new home in Malawi.