2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA
Award Winners 2024
Julie Swaim
Julie Swaim is the mother of an adult son who lost his hearing as a young toddler to meningitis. During a time when resources and options were not as abundant as they are now, Julie was tenacious in her search for knowledge and resources for her son. Her son currently wears a cochlear implant, is married, has a very successful career, and is an enthusiastically engaged father to three adorable young children. Julie has been a strong, tireless advocate for DHH children in Indiana for the last 30 years. Her participation in several committees, initiatives and programs in Indiana have paved the way for many advances to improve the access families have to information and resources. Julie has been an EHDI bilingual parent consultant for 13 years.
She has been a trailblazer in the Indiana EHDI program serving Hispanic families from the beginning and advocating for their access to equal care. She also consistently brings new ideas to our work for program improvements. Julie and her husband Gary have consistently volunteered to support the parent organizations in our state that support families of deaf and hard of hearing children. Numerous families report that Julie was instrumental in helping them through their journey from newborn hearing screening to diagnosis and treatment for their DHH children. Julie’s unique perspective and wisdom create interactions that are a wonderful combination of compassion, humor, encouragement, and directness that empower families at all levels of their journey.