2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA
DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER
Award Winner/Nominee Details 2025
Carrie Spangler
We are writing to nominate Dr. Carrie Spangler for the 2025 Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence. I first met Dr. Spangler through our mutual involvement on Ohio’s Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Subcommittee, where she served as co-chair, in 2012. I was joining the state subcommittee as a parent of children with hearing loss, and she immediately put me at ease with the large group and formal atmosphere of the organization. From the first moments, her approachable body language and down-to-earth personality made that subcommittee less intimidating and more welcoming.
Over the 12 years that I have known Dr. Spangler, I have come to appreciate her steadfast commitment to children with hearing loss. As an educational audiologist who herself has a significant hearing loss and was educated in the mainstream educational setting, Dr. Spangler has the unique perspective of both a highly trained professional and a deaf adult. She connects with parents and students alike not only because of her hearing loss, but also because she genuinely strives for meaningful relationships with students, parents, and the educational team with which she works.
In addition to her years on the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Subcommittee, Dr. Spangler has held many local, statewide, and national positions on professional boards and volunteer organizations. These include with the American Speech and Hearing Association, Educational Audiology Association, Ohio Speech and Hearing Professionals Board, Ohio Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and the Ohio School Speech Language Pathologist and Educational Audiologists Coalition. She recently joined the Hands & Voices HQ DHH advisory board, a position which I am especially excited about because I know first-hand how impactful Dr. Spangler’s influence has been for my family.
Most recently, Dr. Spangler has been involved in Ohio with the legislative activities for Madeline’s Law which was passed in December 2024 to require hearing aid insurance coverage for pediatric hearing aids. Parents, audiology professionals, and dedicated lawmakers worked tirelessly for six years (over 3 general assemblies) to advocate for this important change. Whenever we made the trek to Columbus to testify, we know we would always be there alongside Dr. Spangler. She is the one that worked closest with our government officials to push the bill along and just this December we finally made it happen. Notably, this is the first insurance issue to pass in Ohio for ten years. When the legislation was signed by Governor DeWine, he indicated that Dr. Spangler’s involvement was key to his signing. This measure will impact families from the moment of diagnosis and throughout their childhood, by making hearing technology accessible through employer-provided health insurance.
The influence that Dr. Spangler has in Ohio is due to her life􀆟me of advocacy and commitment to deaf children and their families. Each rung on the ladder of her career has led her to this moment, and we are enthusiastic in nomina􀆟ng her for the Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence.