2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA

DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER

  • A young mother holds her toddler while they interact with a female therapist or educator. The therapist is gesturing with her hands, possibly using sign language or explaining something, while the mother and child are engaged and attentive.
  • A baby sits on their mother's lap while a female audiologist fits a hearing aid.
  • A young boy with a cochlear implant, his hands covered in colorful paint, gently holds the face of a woman who is smiling with her eyes closed.
  • A young child sitting at a table in a classroom, attentively observing a teacher demonstrating something with an Oreo cookie.
  • A young girl sits in a chair, holding a small toy while a female audiologist places a medical device by her ear.
  • A woman excitedly reads a Christmas book to a young girl wearing a headband and a cochlear implant.
  • A woman joyfully holds a smiling toddler, who is wearing a hearing device, in a garden filled with blooming white and pink flowers.
  • A woman joyfully holds a smiling toddler, who is wearing a hearing device, in a garden filled with blooming white and pink flowers.
  • A young boy with a cochlear implant playing with an educational bead maze toy while a woman attentively listens and engages with him.
  • Two young boys playing with puppets at a table. One boy is wearing a hearing aid.
  • A woman touches her fingertips together and smiles at a toddler who is holding a colorful ball.
  • A female teacher interacts with three young children, two of whom are wearing cochlear implants, as they play together with toys in a classroom.
  • A baby sits on their mother's lap while a female audiologist fits a hearing aid.
  • A young child with wet hair and swimming goggle on their hand stands outdoors, wrapped in a blue-striped towel and wearing a cochlear implant.
  • A nurse holding a baby in a medical examination room with aquatic-themed wall decorations. The baby is sitting up and looking at the camera while the nurse uses a medical device to check the baby's hearing.
  • A young girl wearing a hijab sits on a woman's lap, both smiling as they listen attentively to a doctor holding a medical instrument.
  • A close-up of a baby wearing a hearing aid, gazing attentively to the side.
  • A young boy with a bone conduction hearing device looks excitedly at a large turtle in an aquarium.
  • A woman joyfully holds a smiling toddler, who is wearing a hearing device, in a garden filled with blooming white and pink flowers.
  • A woman touches her fingertips together and smiles at a toddler who is holding a colorful ball.
  • A young girl sits next on a woman's lap during a hearing test session. A male audiologist wearing headphones and is seated across from them engaging with the child. They are in a soundproofed room with a window through which another technician can be seen operating equipment.
  • A young boy with a cochlear implant looks through a microscope in a laboratory setting.
  • A young boy with a cochlear implant playing with an educational bead maze toy while a woman attentively listens and engages with him.

Award Winner/Nominee Details 2024

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Allison Sedey

It is with great conviction and excitement that we nominate Dr. Allison Sedey for the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. With dual certification in speech-language pathology and audiology, Allison began her career in Los Angeles at TRIPOD Preschool for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and at the House Ear Institute. For the past 26 years she has coordinated the assessment program for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, ages birth to 3, throughout the state of Colorado. Along with that, over the last two decades, Allison has been the Project Coordinator for numerous large-scale CDC- and NIH-funded EHDI-related research projects, including the National Early Childhood Assessment Project (NECAP), a multi-state project designed to examine factors related to successful language outcomes in young children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Most recently, since the fall of 2020, Allison has served as the Director of the Outcomes and Developmental Data Assistance Center for EHDI Programs (ODDACE), a $3-million cooperative agreement supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ODDACE's purpose is to expand public health capacity to gather, analyze, and use intervention and developmental outcome data of young children who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout the United States. With aspects that are clinical, educational, and research-related, ODDACE benefits deaf and hard-of-hearing children, their families, interventionists, intervention programs, and the field of deafness generally.

To date, Allison has published 27 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and she has given over 100 presentations -- 33 at EHDI conferences between the years of 2006 and 2023. Her research projects have spanned across many areas of interest to EHDI. These include (but are not limited to) studies furthering the field's understanding of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in respect to: the impact of intensity of intervention, measurement of developmental outcomes, the impact of EHDI, differences in outcomes for early- and later-identified deafness, literacy and educational issues for children with cochlear implants, approaches to intervention for best speech-language development in children of hearing parents, and speech production & perception of children with cochlear implants or tactile aids.

On a personal note, those who have had the pleasure of working directly with Allison appreciate her for the dedication and attention to detail she demonstrates in all that she does. She creates work environments that offer others support, positivity, gratitude, and excellent snacks. At the same time, she is considerate, fun-loving, and compassionate. She amazes everyone with her meticulous handwriting, Disney knowledge, and ability to work late into the night. She cares deeply about making positive changes and never loses sight of the goals and priorities (and children!) that ignited her passion for the field.

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