Erin J. Coomes Au.D., CCC-A

As the Assistant Director, Dr. Coomes is responsible for leading multiple services including Police, Veteran Experience Office, and Center for Development and Civic Engagement, as well as serving as the executive liaison to several centralized services including, but not limited to, the Office of Information and Technology and Veterans Canteen Service.

Prior to her current role, Dr. Coomes served as the Associate Director for Operations at VA North Texas Healthcare System where she had oversight of multiple operational services including Engineering, Safety, Pharmacy, Nutrition and Food, Health Administration, and Environmental Management among others.  She also previously served as the Service Chief for Audiology & Speech Pathology Service (ASPS) at VA North Texas.  She was responsible for all audiology and speech pathology services provided at the Dallas VA Medical Center, Sam Rayburn Memorial Veterans Center, Ft. Worth VA Clinic, and Tyler Centennial VA Clinic. In addition, Dr. Coomes undertook several projects for process improvements during her tenure in ASPS, including implementing direct access for audiology services in alignment with the VA Secretary’s initiatives for improved access. Furthermore, she served as a technical team member for the National Hearing Aid Integrated Product team. She led a high-performing service that grew by almost 30% under her leadership. She graduated from Leadership VA with the 2019 cohort.

Before being selected as service chief for ASPS, Dr. Coomes completed her fourth-year externship as a paid trainee at VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (TVHS). Upon graduation, she began working as a research audiologist at TVHS. Once she completed the research study, Dr. Coomes became a full-time, permanent staff member at TVHS where she remained for several years until transferring to VA North Texas. 

Dr. Coomes is an alumnus of Middle Tennessee State University. She studied communication disorders and graduated with a B.A. in 2003. From there, she conducted her graduate studies at Vanderbilt University and was conferred the Doctorate of Audiology (Au.D.) degree in 2008. She spends time with her husband and three children in her spare time.