2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA

DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER

  • 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 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 woman touches her fingertips together and smiles at a toddler who is holding a colorful ball.
  • A woman and a young boy sit at a table, engaging in a sign language conversation with another woman. The boy is focused on his hands, practicing the signs, while the woman guides him.
  • 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 young child sitting at a table in a classroom, attentively observing a teacher demonstrating something with an Oreo cookie.
  • A young girl with a cochlear implant smiles at a woman who is smiling back.
  • A young child sitting at a table in a classroom, attentively observing a teacher demonstrating something with an Oreo cookie.
  • 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 sits on a white couch, reading a picture book to a young child who is wearing a green hearing aid.
  • 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 female teacher interacts with three young children, two of whom are wearing cochlear implants, as they play together with toys in a classroom.
  • Two children dressed in playful cowboy outfits. One child, with a hearing aid and a yellow bandana, smiles widely at the camera. The other child, wearing a cowboy hat and a white bandana, laughs joyfully while looking at their friend.
  • A young girl sits in a chair, holding a small toy while a female audiologist places a medical device by her ear.
  • 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 young child sitting at a table in a classroom, attentively observing a teacher demonstrating something with an Oreo cookie.
  • 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 woman excitedly reads a Christmas book to a young girl wearing a headband and a cochlear implant.
  • Two men smile and interact with a baby.
  • 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 man holds a young child while listening to a doctor, who is dressed in a white coat and seated at a desk with a tablet in front of him.
  • Two young boys playing with puppets at a table. One boy is wearing a hearing aid.
  • 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.

Award Winner/Nominee Details 2023

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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.

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