2025 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 9-11, 2025 • Pittsburgh, PA
DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER
Award Winners 2025
Traci Penland
Traci’s relationship with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community began when she met Charles Penland, a Deaf man who would eventually become her father-in-law.Traci studied Accounting in college, but the DHH community quickly became her passion. Initially, she learned American Sign Language to communicate with Charles. Later, she honed her ability to sign as she worshipped with and served alongside Deaf individuals in the Mid-South. Eventually, her heart for adoption and love for the Deaf community led her and her husband to adopt two deaf children.
The adoption of these two beloved children led her to engage with the struggle that EHDI members are all too familiar with: language deprivation. After researching best practices and available options, she chose ASL as the language modality for her daughter, and she used ASL, along with spoken language and bone conduction hearing aids, for her youngest son. Committed to speech interventions and play dates with other DHH peers, Traci was immersed in a small community of DHH students and their families.
Though they began as playdates, her initiative led to the creation of a fine arts class for deaf students, bringing in martial arts, culinary, and other local instructors to share their skills. Word of her work within her local community quickly spread, and she was hired by Georgia Hands & Voices as an Educational Guide for parents of DHH children. In this role, she taught parents how to partner with their school to ensure the best educational outcomes possible.
Simultaneously, she worked alongside her children’s educational team, gaining expertise in legal provisions for DHH students. A genuine part of the IEP team for both of her children, Traci advocated for changes that would affect her children and the DHH students in the same school.
Ms. Penland is a Parent Navigator within the Georgia Mobile Audiology Program. She never wavers from her desire to serve DHH students and end language deprivation. She continues to assist parents by providing desperately needed resources and information.
Her latest project, ASL At Home, brings language instruction into the homes of Georgia residents with children who are DHH. This project uses virtual instruction and in-person interactions to make a lasting impact on those involved. Her first cohort has already become a tight-knit community that has not only been able to immerse their children into a language-rich environment but also share resources regarding community events tailored to the DHH community. The lessons used by the families are taught by researchers Leah Greer and Razi Zarchy, both experts in language acquisition and members of the Deaf community.
Traci’s commitment to language nutrition and the provision of resources to DHH families embodies the ideals EHDI represents. For this reason, she is truly deserving of this recognition.