2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA
Award Winners 2024
Miranda Nerland & Natasha Rich
Miranda Nerland and Natasha Rich are committed, gifted, parent leaders with the Florida EHDI program. Miranda Nerland is the mother of a daughter with CHARGE Syndrome. Miranda is passionate about ensuring all parents have strong parent-to-parent support, particularly parents of children with complex medical needs. Miranda’s professional background is in editorial journalism and designing virtual trainings and websites. Miranda has been employed by the Florida EHDI Program since 2018. Natasha Rich is the mother of a son with microtia atresia with unilateral hearing loss. Natasha is passionate about ensuring all parents understand the impact of hearing loss on early child development and are enrolled in early intervention. Natasha’s professional background is as an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C developmental specialist provider. Natasha has been employed with the Florida EHDI Program since 2020.
In 2020, Miranda and Natasha led the Florida EHDI Program in developing and implementing a system for hearing loss follow-up. Parents of children recently diagnosed with permanent long-term hearing loss receive empathic support to facilitate connections to national, statewide, and local resources. The team makes direct referrals to local IDEA, Part C program offices and other appropriate resources.
Natasha is EHDI Program lead for collaboration between Florida EHDI and the IDEA, Part C Program. Since initial implementation in 2020, Natasha has established a system to track IDEA, Part C referrals and enrollment. Natasha is currently partnering with the IDEA, Part C Program to pilot a state-level web-based referral system.
In 2022, legislation was passed requiring Florida EHDI to implement a Children’s Hearing Aid Program (CHAP) to provide hearing devices for children up to age 18 without Medicaid or insurance coverage. Miranda provided a parent perspective during the planning and procurement process to identify a provider to administer the CHAP Program. Miranda serves as the EHDI Program lead for CHAP. Miranda is responsible for reviewing CHAP Program participant feedback and providing education about the Program to EHDI stakeholders. Since service initiation in June 2023, 31 children have received hearing devices and services from the program. In 2022, legislation was also passed requiring Florida EHDI to implement targeted congenital Cytomegalovirus (cCMV) screening. Miranda and Natasha have cCMV screening, including planning and testing of data system updates to collect cCMV data, designing and implementing CMV follow-up for families of children diagnosed with cCMV, and providing training and support to hospital conducting cCMV screening. Since implementation of cCMV screening in January 2023, about 10,000 newborns have been screened for cCMV. More than 110 babies have been identified with cCMV and received follow-up and supports because of the screening.
Over the last year Miranda and Natasha have made meaningful and significant contributions that have been foundational for expanding Florida EHDI’s scope to include access to hearing devices and services and cCMV screening. Their commitment to excellence and intensive effort is unparalleled.