Ten years ago, I embarked on a mission to support children with hearing loss. These kids are often one of the few, if not the only, children with hearing loss in their mainstream schools. My goal was to connect them with other kids like themselves and introduce them to inspiring role models who also have hearing loss.
Shock and Then Purpose
Bruna’s diagnosis at age 9 months is Usher syndrome type 1B. It is a rare disease, a recessive inherited disease that we, her parents, had given to her. It is a disease that we had bypassed, but not our daughter.
Collette and Christy: A Story About Friendship and Art
I discovered in the Smithsonian photographic archives of Howard Chandler Christy’s work the existence of two photos of what then appeared to be two separate portraits he painted of Collette Ramsey Baker in the late 1930s.
Facing the Music
More Like a Boost
I Looked Like Me
For the first time I feel my designs actually have a deeper meaning. The work I do is not superficial. It has a deeper function: to change the lifestyles of hard of hearing people and to normalize hearing problems.
Sudden Hearing Loss Happened to Me, Too
I even gave a pastor friend a title for a Sunday sermon because when I shared with him that I couldn't hear in one ear, I said, “I'm great, blessed, and I've learned to ‘function with my malfunction.’”
Sudden Hearing Loss Can Happen to Anyone
Even with a medical background, a nurse wasn’t aware that sudden hearing loss is considered a health emergency and should be treated immediately—and has vowed to share her experience to help others.
Swag and Spirit
A parent celebrates her son and is teaching others about being hard of hearing, how to help with hearing care, and how there’s no limit to success.
Lucky Number Seven
I would often have medical professionals, friends, and family make statements like, “If you’re going to have a brain tumor, you’re lucky it’s this kind, this is the best brain tumor to have. You’re so lucky it isn’t cancer.”