Our keynote speaker this year will be Diego A. Preciado, MD, PHD, chief of Otolaryngology at Children’s National Hospital, a professor (with tenure) of surgery and pediatrics at George Washington University and holds the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Endowed Chair in Pediatric Otolaryngology.  He studies how pathological agents, mostly inflammatory, contribute to chronic ear infections. He hopes to develop greater understanding of human otitis media and help with development of treatments for middle ear effusion.