Joanna Trimble Smith was a co-founder and served as Chief Executive Officer from 2011 through March of 2024 of Hearts for Hearing in Oklahoma City, whose mission is to create life-changing opportunities for children and adults with hearing loss to listen for a lifetime. Joanna graduated from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and as a speech-language pathologist, she has spent 47 years improving the lives of children and adults with hearing loss or communication delays. Ms. Smith was the Executive Director of the Hearing Enrichment Language Program before co-founding Hearts for Hearing in 2003. The organization has grown from 18 employees to 165 in 2024 and the unique service delivery model developed at Hearts for Hearing has significantly improved the listening and spoken language outcomes for children and adults with hearing loss across the world. Ms. Smith is a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist certified as an Auditory Verbal Therapist and has been recognized by the Oklahoma Speech Language Hearing Association with the Gwen Cacy Award for outstanding clinical skills. She has co-authored a periodic column entitled “The Tot Ten” in the Hearing Journal and until her retirement served as one of the Co-Chairs for the CI-PATH initiative. In 2019, she was selected to receive the Pat Potts Visionary Award by the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits.

You can listen to this podcast wherever you stream podcasts and at www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/the-listening-brain-podcast

At age four, I was diagnosed with a severe hearing loss. With determination and the help of powerful hearing aids, I learned to hear, speak and lipread with ten years of speech therapy and lipreading training. I was mainstreamed in public schools in Berkeley, CA. After earning master’s degrees in archaeology and in public policy, and finally an MFA, I developed a career in photography and painting, a profession compatible with a hearing loss. I ran a fine art portrait photography studio for fifteen years before becoming a full-time abstract painter. My paintings are represented by the Seager Gray gallery in Mill Valley, CA. and can be seen on my website: www.claudiamarseille.com

Recently I received the Gold Medal for Best First Book in Non-Fiction from the prestigious Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY’s as they are known), a starred review with the Library Journal, and a 5 star rating with Readers’ Favorite. You can find out more about my memoir and where to purchase at my author website: www.claudiamarseilleauthor.com.

I played classical piano much of my life; in my free time I love to read, watch movies, travel, spend time with friends, and attend concerts and art exhibits. I live with my husband in Oakland and we have one daughter.

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You can listen to this episode wherever you stream podcasts and at www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/the-listening-brain-podcast

If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please contact todd@3cdigitalmedianetwork.com.

María Fernanda Hinojosa Valencia holds a PhD Laude in Education Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Neurolinguistics from the Colegio Superior de Neurolingüística in Mexico and a Bachelor's Degree in Educational Psychology from the Spanish Ministry of Education. She is a certified hearing and oral language specialist in Auditory-Verbal Therapy from the Alexander Graham Bell Academy, where she is a board member and co-chair of the Global Affairs Committee. She oversees Auditory-Verbal Therapy within the Spanish-Speaking Family Program at the John Tracy Center in Los Angeles, California, with which she has collaborated for more than 25 years. He has participated in the implementation of cochlear implant programs in Mexico and Spain.

Mary McGinnis is a teacher of the deaf and Listening and Spoken Language Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist. She is the former Director of the John Tracy Clinic Graduate Program, and continues to teach auditory-verbal courses for the JTC Graduate Program. She’s also a consultant for Aurea Lab in Mexico City, working with families and professionals, and helping to create assessment materials in Spanish. She has worked with children with hearing differences and their families for over 55 years, with experience teaching infants through adults, and families from around the world. She was a researcher and Director of the Fellowship Program at the House Ear Institute at the beginning of FDA trials for the single channel implant in children, and the first multichannel implant in children in North America. She has published and presented on a wide variety of topics, and is known for the world’s first published auditory skills curriculum for deaf and hard of hearing children. She continues to mentor professionals toward LSLS certification, and presents globally on various topics, from auditory skills, to speech, speech acoustics, pragmatics, reading, and family-centered education.

Links:

John Tracy Center:

www.jtc.org

John Tracy Center Graduate Program:

https://www.jtc.org/services/masters-credential-program/

Mary’s email:

MaryDMcGinnis@gmail.com

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You can listen to this episode wherever you stream podcasts and at www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/the-listening-brain-podcast

Carly Sygrove is a hearing loss coach and a hearing health writer who has single-sided deafness. She writes about living with hearing loss at My Hearing Loss Story and manages an online support group for people with hearing loss. She is also the founder of the Sudden Hearing Loss Support website, a source of information and support for people affected by sudden hearing loss.

In her previous career, Carly worked for 14 years as an Early Years teacher in various countries, including the UK, China, Thailand, and Spain, where she currently lives with her partner, Stuart. Outside of hearing health advocacy, Carly enjoys yoga, baking, and walking in the Spanish countryside.

Carly's links:

Coaching website: https://www.carlysygrove.com/

Facebook support group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1422427341250724

Personal blog: https://myhearinglossstory.com/

Podcast: https://www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/happy-hearing-podcast

All links: https://linktr.ee/carlysygrove

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You can listen to this episode wherever you stream podcasts and at www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/the-listening-brain-podcast

Erin Thompson, M.S., CCC-SLP, LSLS Cert AVT has been working with the Children's Cochlear Implant Center at UNC since July 2004. She earned her Bachelors from Appalachian State University and her Master’s in Speech and Hearing Sciences from UNC-Chapel Hill. She completed her clinical fellowship year with Pediatric Speech and Language Services out of Greensboro and became a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist in 2009. Erin conducts Listening and Spoken Language parent participation sessions, speech and language diagnostics for children who are deaf and hard of hearing, as well as co-treat sessions with families and audiologists. A passion has been mentoring students and professionals across NC, the US and abroad. Erin has been a member of the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss and has traveled to Vietnam on three occasions, and Mongolia on one occasion to help provide mentoring and training abroad. She also spent time coaching a team of Speech-Language Therapists in Auckland, New Zealand. Erinexpanded her interests in 2019 to 2023 to include the role of Family Care Coordinator for The Children’s Cochlear Implant Center at UNC. She helped manage, facilitate and coordinate cochlear implant consultation referrals, supporting all families going through the CI consult process at UNC.

https://www.med.unc.edu/earandhearing/

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You can listen to this episode wherever you stream podcasts and at www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/the-listening-brain-podcast