2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA
Award Winner/Nominee Details 2023
Maria Sentelik
I am writing to nominate Maria Sentelik, CCC-A, for the 2023 Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. I have worked with Maria for 22 years, and can attest to her desire for professional excellence and her lifelong commitment to children with hearing loss and their families. Maria began her career as an audiologist, where she first worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer creating programs for children with hearing loss in Ecuador. Following that, Maria served as a college instructor and an audiologist.
Since 2000, Maria has served as the founding Executive Director of Ohio Valley Voices (OVV), an early intervention program that teaches children with hearing loss to listen and speak through the use of hearing aids/cochlear implants. In this time frame, Maria has grown OVV from a program of 12 children to more than 50 children ranging in age from birth through 8, with over 280 alumni. Under Maria's leadership, OVV has broadened its initial scope of direct therapy and educational programming to include an audiology center, family support group, and an outreach center to work with local entities.
Maria values partnerships with families, believing parents need education on all options available to them when they have a child diagnosed with hearing loss. Examples of Maria's commitment to educating families include:
- Initiating a partnership with Bethesda North Hospital to complete a research feasibility study to inform parents of language decisions when a child referred on a newborn hearing screening.
- Partnering with Ohio State University and Ohio professionals in a focus group dedicated to educating families of young children with hearing loss about their options for mode of communication and services in Ohio.
- Serving as the principle on the Coalition for the Improvement of Services for Children with Hearing Loss
Additionally, Maria exudes cultural respect to serve the whole family. In response to some of our families who do not use English as their primary mode of communication, Maria created a program that would allow the families to learn to teach their child the home language. This has allowed our children the opportunity to connect with extended family members in the languages of Spanish, Mandarin, Urdu, and Arabic.
Maria presents at the national level, and of note, has been a presenter at EHDI conferences. At the 2020 EHDI Conference, Maria and Dayton Children's Hospital presented their collaborative effort to improve service provision.
For her ingenuity, Maria has received the "Women Who Inspire" award through Mercy McAuley High School, and the "Elwood Chaney Outstanding Clinician" award through the Ohio Speech Language and Hearing Association. Additionally, OVV has won the "Non-Profit of the Year" award through the city of Loveland, Ohio.