Antonia Brancia Maxon Award
For EHDI Excellence
The Ohio Department of Health's (ODH) Infant Hearing Screening Program would like to
posthumously nominate, Karen "Kit" Buhrer, M.A., for the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for
EHDI Excellence. Kit championed for EHDI for well over three decades, exhibiting leadership,
dedication, and research that led to the creation of Ohio's existing UNHS legislation and effective
early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) system.
Kit obtained a bachelor's in Speech Pathology and Audiology (1970) and a master's in Audiology
(1973) from the University of Cincinnati. During her freshman year Kit worked as a clinical
audiology trainee at the University of Cincinnati's training center for developmental disabilities. Kit
graduated with academic honors and demonstrated a natural ability of establishing life long
personal/professional relationships that would make possible the accomplishments of one individual
with an EHDI vision. Kit went on to publish EHDI research with the University of Cincinnati's
Otolaryngologists, Ohio State University's Speech and Hearing Program, and Toledo's Department
of Pediatrics Medical College of Toledo.
In 1974 Kit accepted an audiology position in Ohio at the Delaware Speech and Hearing Center.
Within four short years, Kit was promoted to assistant director and then acting director. In 1978
Kit's true passions lead her to ODH where Kit became one of Ohio's greatest assets in establishing
an effective EHDI system. Kit's expertise, patience, understanding, compassion, work ethic, and
consistent results all epitomized the word "professional".
EHDI Excellence.
- Initiated EHDI legislation process to create Ohio's first mandated hearing screening and
assessment (IHSAP) legislation
- Developed/Implemented comprehensive IHSAP program materials for 131 birthing and
children's hospitals, including, guidelines/rules, high risk questionnaire, newborn parents
letter, toll free information number, parent information/hearing speech and language
milestones handout, informational video explaining importance of infant hearing
detection/intervention and IHSAP legislation and required hospital processes
- Developed and implemented nine Regional Infant Hearing Programs (RIHP) to track and
follow infants that did not pass hospital screening and to provide weekly specialized
habilitative services for families/children with hearing loss, including opportunities for
family to family support and interaction with deaf community
- Developed public awareness campaign, created UNHS educational materials, "Baby Baby
Do You Hear Me" video and disseminated to 131 hospitals.
- Developed and disseminated IHSAP curriculum, training materials, including, personally
providing required training of hospital personnel to administer high risk questionnaire to all
131 birthing and children's hospitals
- Advocated for UNHS legislation that resulted in mandated UNHS legislation for Ohio.
It is a privilege to publicly recognize and acknowledge Kit Buhrer's lifetime of outstanding EHDI
achievements. To honor Kit's legacy, her picture was added to the RIHP resource manual with the
inscription "Kit Buhrer, Our Colleague, Our Inspiration."
ODH is pleased to nominate Karen "Kit" Buhrer to be considered for the Antonia Brancia Maxon
award for EHDI Excellence.
Connecticut's (CT's) EHDI Advisory Board is a group of individuals and agencies who, since 1989,
have been the driving force behind CT's legislative mandate, as well as the establishment of
unparalleled systems for education, follow up, and intervention. CT's EHDI Advisory Board is
most deserving of this award as evidenced by the activities highlighted below.
Education. One of the board members produced three videotapes on newborn hearing screening
and intervention through the cooperative efforts of this group. The videotapes were distributed to
EHDI coordinators by NCHAM, and to EHDI Chapter Champions by the American Academy of
Pediatrics. They can be viewed on NCHAM's website, and continue to be requested by Public
Health Departments across the country for use in statewide training programs and birthing hospitals.
Board members continue to update materials and provide training programs for physicians,
audiologists, and nurses by means of web-based and onsite instruction, as well as statewide
conferences. Pediatricians and otolaryngologists are provided with additional information through
programs and presentations at professional meetings and through the dissemination of printed
materials developed by our board.
Follow-up. Board members from CT's Department of Public Health have many EHDI
accomplishments to their credit. They recently developed an excellent computerized system for
tracking infants through the process of screening, referral, and intervention. The system was
created as part of over $1.5 million in federal grants awarded to DPH for equipment, training, and
tracking.
Statistics for January through December of 2008 indicate that 98.8% of the 40,860 babies born in
Connecticut were screened; 1.14% were referred for diagnostic testing, 59.74% of those children
passed, and 11.47% were identified with hearing loss. Only 1.52% was lost to followup. A
cooperative agreement between our board members from DPH and CT's Birth to Three program
has resulted in our ability to track the 53 identified children, and to know that all were enrolled in
intervention programs by the age of 6 months.
Intervention. Connecticut is unique in that it has three early intervention programs that specialize
in serving children with hearing loss. Representatives from each of the three programs along with
staff from CT's Birth to Three's central office are all members of our advisory board. This close
collaboration has facilitated the exchange of information among agencies as it relates to a child's
hearing screening, follow-up, and identification. It has also created seamless connections to
intervention, and resulted in CT's Birth to Three program changing eligibility requirements to
include children with mild and unilateral hearing losses in early intervention programs.
Summary. As a result of collaborative efforts, CT's EHDI Advisory Board helped secure funding
for equipment; created training programs; developed an excellent computerized system for tracking
and follow-up; created seamless connections to intervention; changed eligibility requirements for
services; and produced educational materials that have been disseminated and used across the
country. We are proud to have created a model program. Since Toni was an active participant in
this group, it seems a fitting tribute that "her" EHDI Advisory Board is recognized for its
excellence.
As Chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Newborn Hearing Screening, I
am writing to nominate Michelle Esquivel for the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for Excellence in
the field of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI).
Michelle has been a tireless force in the expansion of universal newborn hearing screening and
effective early intervention for infants who are born deaf or hard of hearing. In her staff role with
the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Newborn Hearing Screening, she has been able
to make the daunting task of advancing newborn hearing screening somehow manageable. Over her
many years in this role, she recruits, maintains, and updates a roster of "Chapter Champions" in
every state of the union, fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics who volunteer their own
time to champion the cause of infant hearing screening. Leveraging the efforts of this group,
Michelle prepares regularly the "EHDI E-Mail Express" electronic newsletter, coordinates
teleconference educational sessions, and contributes to the yearly planning of the EHDI national
meeting.
In addition to educating pediatricians across the nation, Michelle has helped to coordinate efforts to
expand both our knowledge and our influence into the ranks of other primary healthcare providers
such as family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, obstetricians, and nurse
midwives. She has solicited speakers for national events and has prepared articulate and timely
submissions to assure that these educational efforts will reach health professionals across the nation.
Michelle has been instrumental in improving the various efforts of the American Academy of
Pediatrics that interface with ongoing newborn hearing screening efforts. She has coordinated the
linkage between the Task Force and various workgroups such as Bright Futures (and their updates
of recommended screenings performed according to their "periodicity table"), assisted in collecting
potential revisions of the newly developed recommendations of the pediatric otolaryngology section
(concerning hearing screening after infancy and medical care for children with cochlear implants,
for example), and worked closely processing requests and soliciting input on behalf of various
intergovernmental agencies as they relate to the American Academy of Pediatrics and infant hearing
screening. She has been a major force in connecting the Medical Home Initiative of the American
Academy of Pediatrics with effective intervention for children who are born deaf or hard of hearing.
She has also acted as a liaison between the American Academy of Pediatrics and various national
initiatives from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing,
the "Learning Collaborative" model of process improvement, and others.
With great appreciation of her dutiful work and admiration of her tireless energy, I am honored to
nominate Michelle Esquivel to be the 2009 recipient of the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for
EHDI Excellence.
I am proud to nominate Dr. Merle McPherson. No individual has been more responsible for
expanding universal newborn hearing screening from few sites in 1989 to become the nationwide
standard of care in 2009. As Chief of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau since 1986, she
championed key concepts of coordinated, family-centered, community based, culturally competent
care for children with special needs and worked to ensure a medical home for every child.
Aware of the dismal educational and vocational outcomes for deaf children, she became convinced
of the importance of moving the average age of identification from over four years of age to the first
months of life. She had a significant influence with Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop as he
made newborn hearing screening a priority, setting the goal that all children with significant hearing
loss would be identified before 12 months of age by the Year 2000.
With no earmarked funds, but with an understanding of the need for a research base to demonstrate
the efficacy of universal newborn hearing screening, Dr. McPherson utilized Special Grants of
Regional and National Significance (SPRANS) to demonstrate the viability of oto-acoustic
emissions as a reliable method of newborn hearing screening. She funded the Rhode Island Hearing
Assessment Project, which demonstrated in the states of Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Utah that
newborn hearing screening could be successfully implemented statewide.
Additionally, as probably the nation's most visible pediatrician, Dr. McPherson used her reputation
and influence through the American Academy of Pediatrics to gain support of community
pediatricians for universal newborn hearing screening. Without her influence, communities across
the nation could likely have never marshaled support of the medical community to make universal
screening a reality.
Dr. McPherson influenced the drafting of EDHI legislation by Representative Walsh of New York.
The EDHI legislation is a Federal model of interagency collaboration, with the Maternal-Child
Health Bureau funding services in the states, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
funding surveillance activities across the nation, and with the National Institutes of Health funding
continuing research in newborn hearing screening.
Recognizing that the screening process was only the beginning, Dr. McPherson championed the
idea that successful screening rests on a "three-legged stool"––with linkages to early intervention
(Part C), family support, and the medical home. All were critical components to ensure that
screening led to a coordinate system of care for children with significant hearing loss. Dr.
McPherson, understanding the importance of technical assistance for states, identified funding to
support a national resource center to assist states and territories as they implemented universal
newborn hearing screening.
In summary, Dr. McPherson, working in collaboration with Dr. C. Everett Koop, Dr. Tom Behrens,
Dr. Karl White, the Joint Committee, and members of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has
been the champion required to provide vision, leadership, funding, and administrative support
required to make universal newborn hearing screening one of the greatest public health
accomplishments of the past two decades!
I would like to recommend Dr. Marilyn Warren Neault for the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for
EHDI Excellence. Dr. Neault worked tirelessly to pass the Massachusetts Newborn Hearing
Screening legislation, which is one of the strongest newborn hearing screening laws in the country.
Dr. Neault has worked with me since that time (over ten years) as an active member of the Advisory
Committee and has assisted the Department of Public Health in writing regulations, guidelines, and
protocols for newborn hearing screening and follow-up.
Dr. Neault has also been very instrumental in educating audiologists throughout the state on various
topics at our Department of Public Health Approved Diagnostic Center Meetings that occur three
times each year. She is a strong advocate for our program and always makes clear points at the
meetings about the importance of submitting data to our program. I feel very comfortable in telling
you that the audiologists in Massachusetts hold Dr. Neault in very high regard and her commitment
to newborn hearing screening is clearly a strong factor in the success our program has achieved
(including being able to document that infants and their families are being connected to services in
compliance with the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Goals and Objectives).
Dr. Neault has also authored many articles and has been involved in may research projects. Dr.
Neault presented Incidence of "Unilateral Newborn Screening Referrals with Bilateral Hearing
Loss" and "Unilateral Hearing Loss: Does It Matter?" at the EHDI Conference. I was also
extremely impressed by data collected on a project that was published on "Factors associated with
sensorineual hearing loss among survivors of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy" that
she worked on with partners from Children's Hospital Boston. Although the number of infants that
receive this therapy is small compared to the number of infants born in Massachusetts, the team that
worked on the project, including Dr. Neault, cared enough to investigate and document that these
infants are at much greater risk of developing hearing loss.
I would also like to express that I have always gotten extremely positive feedback from parents
about their experiences having Dr. Neault for their audiologist. She works tirelessly, is very
approachable and caring, and makes herself available to parents when they have questions or need
to speak to her. She is also involved in many groups that support parents in the area and works with
families from most of the New England states.
Dr. Neault was also a colleague of Toni Maxon, who we all loved and respected. As part of the
NCHAM network, Toni came out to meet with our audiologists and worked closely with our state.
I personally know Dr. Neault and Toni had mutual admiration for each other and I believe that Dr.
Neault would be very honored to receive this award in Toni's name.
I am nominating NJ Statewide Parent to Parent (P2P), a program of the Statewide Parent Advocacy
Network (SPAN), and the NJEHDI program for the 2009 Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI
Excellence. We have been collaborating since August 2002. Our collaboration continues even after
the funding has ended, because of the commitment and the understanding of both the NJ EHDI staff
and P2P that families in NJ who have a child with a hearing loss need un-biased, culturally
competent and appropriate information about available child and family supports and services.
Our collaboration has included:
- Targeting culturally and linguistically diverse families of children with deafness/hearing loss
and providing them with an orientation to serve as Support Parents to provide one-to-one
emotional support, information, and resources. We currently have twenty-two (22) support
parents of children with deafness or hearing loss, including parents who are bilingual.
- Hosting regional focus groups with parents and professionals to identify strengths and needs and
recommendations for improvement. The primary concern was a lack of information among
parents about what to do once their child was found to have a potential hearing loss.
Collaboratively, we developed and translated a one-page flyer about the steps parents should
take and the resources available to help them. This brochure is now part of our P2P brochure
and the packet provided to audiology staff of NJ's birthing hospitals during annual visits.
- Developing and disseminating a Newborn Hearing Screening Program "Hospital Checklist
Form" for birthing hospitals that is distributed by the NJ EHDI program. This form provides our
program with contact information on each hospital in New Jersey as well as information about
each hospital's resources and supports.
- Planning three biannual NJ Family Learning Conferences with P2P, NJ EHDI, NJ Division for
the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Katzenbach School for the Deaf. Diverse families (including
Spanish speaking parents for whom we provided simultaneous translation) have learned about
resources and services and linked with other families raising children with deafness/hearing
loss. Over 70 parents and over 50 children with deafness/ hearing loss have participated in these
conferences.
- Planning and facilitating a workshop for the 2007 National EHDI conference on "NJ Family
Learning Day-A Collaborative Approach to Family Support." This workshop provided an
overview of the development of our regional conferences and their impact on families.
- Developing and disseminating a resource brochure about NJ-specific services for children with
deafness/hearing loss and their families. The brochure has been reviewed by diverse parents
and revised to be culturally appropriate. It is available in English and Spanish.
- As a result of our collaboration, the NJ Department of Education disseminated a mini-resource
guide regarding services for children with hearing loss to every school district in the state with
information about SPAN (the Parent Training and Information Center, Family Voices and
Family to Family Health Information Center, and Parent to Parent program).
Our ongoing collaboration provides NJ's diverse families with critical information, resources and
the emotional support needed for their journey.
The following information is provided to support the nomination of Dr. Halloie Morrow for the Antonia
Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. Dr. Morrow has been integrally involved in the
development, implementation, and management of the California Newborn Hearing Screening
Program (NHSP), including:
- facilitation of Technical Advisory Committees that assisted with the conceptual design of
the geographically-based Hearing Coordination Centers and the outreach activities
- development of procedures and criteria for automated and manual data management
- creation and updating of inpatient and outpatient provider standards
- development of Communication Disorder Center standards for California's Title V Children
with Special Health Care Needs program (California Children's Services)
- assistance with the development of Infant Audiology Assessment Guidelines
- development of certification criteria for inpatient infant hearing screening providers
- development of scope of work for Hearing Coordination Centers (certification of hospitals,
data collection from inpatient and outpatient screening providers and audiologists, tracking
and monitoring of each infant who needs outpatient assessment of hearing, six month
follow-up of infants after hearing loss is identified, and quality assurance monitoring of
hospital programs)
- procurement of contractors to serve as Hearing Coordination Centers
- development of a comprehensive Tracking and Monitoring Procedure Manual
- oversight and monitoring of Hearing Coordination Center activities
- interagency collaboration between the California Department of Health Care Services,
Department of Developmental Services, Special Education Division of the California
Department of Education, and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Unit of the California
Department of Education
- collaboration with other stakeholders including the deaf and hard of hearing community
agencies
- development of a single point of referral into the Early Start program (California's
implementation of Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
- participation on workgroup that developed Best Practices document for Early Start program
to provide early intervention services for infants who are deaf or hard of hearing and their
families
- collaboration with Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) to develop newborn hearing
screening codes and a mechanism for certified screening providers to be reimbursed for
hearing screening services provided to infants on Medi-Cal
- facilitation of statewide trainings for audiologists in the assessment and management of
infants referred from newborn hearing screening and those with hearing loss
The California NHSP is the largest newborn hearing screening program in the United States,
screening over 440,000 infants in 2007. The program identifies almost 1000 infants with
hearing loss annually. The Hearing Coordination Center model has been very successful in the
reducing loss to follow-up (11% vs. 46% nationally) and in linking infants with early
intervention services.
Dr. Morrow has also been involved in the development of all of the educational materials that
are used in the California NHSP, including parent brochures (general information about the
program, information for parents-to-be, results of screening [pass, refer, refer to diagnostic
evaluation], waiver, ages and stages of language milestones), and provider information
(brochure, single page flyers). She has presented numerous powerpoint presentations to
provider groups about the program and outcomes. She was also on the team that has presented
information about the program and the certification process to hospitals prior to the initial
implementation of the program. With the expansion to all general acute care hospitals in the
state.
Dr. Morrow assisted with all aspects of the outreach and awareness campaign that the California
NHSP engaged in at the onset of the program. This included development of our parent and
provider materials; presentations to hospital, audiology, and pediatric provider groups; and
presentations to other stakeholder groups, including parents, advocacy groups, and teachers of
the deaf. The NHSP team provided guidance to the Hearing Coordination Centers regarding
their outreach and awareness activities to local county programs (Early and Periodic Screening
Diagnosis and Treatment programs, California Children's Services, WIC, Public Health
Nursing, etc), providers (individual audiology and pediatric provider practices, hospital grand
rounds), and parent and support organizations (family resource centers, deaf and hard of hearing
support agencies).
The California NHSP has required that each Hearing Coordination Center have a parent as a
paid staff member to identify local support resources for families and to assure that the policies
and procedures of the Hearing Coordination Center are parent friendly. Dr. Morrow has worked
with the California Department of Education to procure a Maternal and Child Health Bureau
grant to develop a parent-to-parent support program (Parent Links) that is based in the Early
Start Family Resource Centers. The Hearing Coordination Centers and the Parent Links
program will work collaboratively to assure that families understand the importance of early
identification of hearing loss and to provide parent support. The Hearing Coordination Centers
have contact with families during the assessment process and follow them for six months after
identification of a hearing loss. The Parent Links program will focus most of their energies on
families after identification with six to ten hours of parent contact, in addition to linking these
parents with other families through IMPACT, the statewide organization of parents of children
who are deaf or hard of hearing.
This letter is to inform you that the EHDI Community in Arizona would like to nominate Lylis
Olsen for the 2009 Award for EHDI Excellence. This nomination is based on Lylis' leadership role
and numerous noteworthy accomplishments which have led to the establishment of a statewide
EHDI program.
Lylis' efforts have been deeply rooted and involved in laying the groundwork, building the
infrastructure and partnerships, statewide. Her vision began approximately 15 years ago when she
worked for the Arizona Department of Health Services Sensory Program. She and Brandt
Cullpepper began a campaign to educate hospital stakeholders on the importance of newborn
hearing screening, traveling to small rural hospitals.
In 1998, Lylis established a partnership with the EAR Foundation of Arizona and wrote a local
grant to the St. Lukes Charitable Trust to provide hospitals with equipment and training. The
success of her initial efforts led to the continued expansion and development of a state EHDI
program. She has brought EHDI partners and stakeholders together and through her collaborative
approach, has established working partnerships to identify program needs and gaps in service. In
addition, she has written numerous local and federal grants to meet those needs for families and
children.
In 1999, Lylis and the EAR Foundation of Arizona (EFAZ) established the HEAR For Kids
Program (HFK) which provides hearing services to Arizona's children in need. Through her
partnership with the St. Lukes Charitable Trust and with the participation of providers and families,
the program was developed to fill the following gaps in services: a) provide a high quality pool of
hearing aids that help to bridge the gap between diagnosis of hearing loss and obtaining permanent
hearing aids, b) provide children whose parents have no financial resources to purchase hearing aids
yet they do not qualify for state services, c) provide children who need an audiological or medical
evaluation to determine hearing loss but do not have financial resources to obtain the evaluation.
Since its inception, more than 2000 families have benefited from HFK. It has been on a continuous
funding cycle for 10 consecutive years providing over 1000 permanent hearing aids, more than 800
loaner hearing aids and thousands of earmolds to children birth to 18 in need. In addition, HFK has
served as a template for other states that have developed similar programs.
Another noteworthy accomplishment of Lylis' was related to our state's legislative efforts to pass
and implement a reporting mandate and a state follow-up program. Lylis obtained a second masters
degree in Public Health and conducted her internship with the March of Dimes to partner and
advocate in these efforts.
In 2006, Lylis and the EFAZ brought families and professionals together and wrote a grant to help
establish an Arizona chapter of Hands and Voices, which has recently been established as a 501-c-3
organization.
I speak on behalf of our state EHDI collaborative in saying that we are both fortunate and honored
to know and work alongside Lylis. We appreciate her vision, passion and commitment to Arizona
EHDI and believe that an award in memory of Antonia Brancia Maxon would be well deserved.
Shirley Russ MD MPH is an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA, Department of
Academic Primary Care Pediatrics, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Shirley first became involved
with newborn hearing screening in 1990 while completing her fellowship in developmental and
community pediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She was responsible
for implementing and evaluating the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP),
screening all at-risk newborns in the state of Victoria for hearing loss. Published findings from this
research, contributed to decisions to expand newborn hearing screening, and to discontinue use of
the behavioral distraction test later in infancy. For this work she received the Victorian Health
Promotion Foundation's Research into Practice Award in 2000. An early theme of her work, which
continues to this day, was the importance of the partnership between parents and professionals in
improving outcomes for children that are deaf or hard of hearing. She was also one of the first to
apply qualitative research techniques to the evaluation of newborn hearing screening programs.
Since 2002 Shirley has served as the AAP Los Angeles EHDI Chapter Champion. Shirley worked
closely with the other California Champions and with partners such as March of Dimes to support
new legislation expanding hearing screening to all newborns in California, not just those born in
certain hospitals. She gave testimony in support of this bill in the California State Assembly, and
the legislation passed successfully. She has continued to work closely with the California EHDI
Program to engage physicians and to strengthen links between health services, early intervention
and parent supports. She is a frequent speaker at state meetings.
Since 2006, Shirley has served as Clinical Primary Care Chair for a series of NICHQ Learning
Collaboratives on Minimizing Loss to Follow-Up after Newborn Hearing Screening. The current
collaborative is focused on Improving the System of Care for Children with Special Healthcare
Needs with a special focus on hearing loss and epilepsy. These initiatives have led to the creation
of new tools such as a parent roadmap, a communication tool to help parents and providers
understand the path through diagnosis and intervention services for children with hearing loss, and
to the identification of "promising practices" for EHDI system improvement for trial by states. She
presented two papers based on this work at the International NHS Conference in Como, Italy in
June 2008.
In January 2008, Shirley chaired a workshop for the Agency for Healthcare, Research and Quality
on "Accelerating Evidence into Practice for the benefit of Children with Early Hearing Loss" that
brought together representatives from federal agencies with parents, providers and other
stakeholders to form an actionable national blueprint for translation of evidence into practice in
EHDI systems. Shirley authored the report on the meeting for presentation to AHRQ, and she is
editing a special supplement to Pediatrics based on this work. Shirley is also collaborating on
research projects on hearing loss through the lifecourse in the UK, and on hearing difficulties in
children with special healthcare needs in the US.
We have the pleasure of nominating Leeanne Seaver and Janet DesGeorges for the 2009 Antonia
Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence.
Leeanne and Janet's passionate commitment to the advancement of Early Hearing Detection and
Intervention and to families with children who have hearing loss is beyond remarkable. Harnessing
the power of the "parent experience," they created a network of parent-professionals qualified to
provide unbiased support to families.
This dynamic duo expanded a thriving Colorado program to today's national and international
Hands & Voices organization. Thirty-six states, British Columbia Canada, the Philippines, and
Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands now have an approved or start up chapter. Seeing
another need, Janet and Leeanne instigated the Global Coalition of Parents of Deaf & Hard of
Hearing Children, currently partnering with international organizations to establish standards for
family support in newborn hearing identification and intervention services.
Most noteworthy is that Leeanne and Janet established Hands & Voices with meager resources
combined with much personal sacrifice. Through ingenuity and determined relationship building,
they leveraged modest funds to build an extensive network.
Leeanne and Janet provide consultation to virtually every aspect of the EHDI process. They
support and often spearhead efforts at NCHAM, CDC, Marion Downs, NICHQ, as well as
mentoring state Hands & Voices' chapters in how to contribute and advocate for families within the
EHDI process. They contributed to the development of the Ski Hi Curriculum, JDSE Author's
Corner, and the Investing in Family Support Conference and more.
Admiration for both women is abundant. Teresa Kazemir offers, "Leeanne
and Janet do not have the word "can't" in their vocabulary. They welcome challenges,
and just work hard to find a way. They inspire us. They are truly making the world a
better place." Lisa Kovacs shares, "Hands & Voices offers me the opportunity for meaningful and
rewarding work. I attribute my motivation and determination to two ladies. Without their guidance
and leadership, I would not be doing what I do today." "If Hands & Voices had not been born
fourteen years ago, we wouldn't have Guide By Your Side training, the Communicator, the parent
support network that responds to each referred family, nor the new national standard of inviting a
parent of a child with hearing loss on any committee or task force that serves such children," states
Sara Kennedy.
Therefore, we hope you will strongly consider Leeanne and Janet for the 2009 Maxon
Award. We cannot think of a more fitting expression of gratitude shared by the
thousands of parents whose lives they have touched.
The purpose of this letter is to nominate Dr. Christine Yoshinaga-Itano to receive the 2009 Antonia
Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. Yoshinaga-Itano received her doctorate in audiology
and hearing impairment at Northwestern University. She has been a member of the CU-Boulder
faculty since 1986.
Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano's research interests are in the area of language development of children with
hearing loss. She has directed several projects for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, including
infants and toddlers from non-English-speaking homes, for the Colorado Department of Education
and the National Institutes of Health.
Few will disagree that the research spearheaded by Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano regarding the
communication outcomes of children who were early identified with hearing loss compared to those
who were late identified provided the sound evidence based results needed to turn the good idea of
newborn hearing screening into a societal reality in less than 10 years. Almost all of the four million
infants born in hospitals in the United States currently have their hearing screened prior to hospital
discharge and universal newborn hearing screening also is being instituted in countries throughout
the world as a direct result of this research.
Few others are as worthy as Christie Yoshinaga-Itano to receive the great honor of receiving the
Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. I would be very surprised if this is the only
letter of support that you have received on Christie's behalf.
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