Family Leadership in Language and Learning Center Advisory Board
The FL3 Center Cooperative Agreement is guided by an Advisory Board consisting of a diverse group of professional and parent partners from a broad range of experiences who will advise on the direction of the FL3 Center in addressing family engagement, leadership, and family support gaps in the EHDI system and other emerging issues.
Advisory Board Members
Pam Aasen, M.A. Pamela Aasen has two young adults sons with Usher syndrome. She has been the NJ EHDI Coordinator since January 2023. Before that she was the Project Director and Family Resource Specialist for the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network's EHDI Project. She began New Jersey's first Deaf Mentor Program and is the winner of the EHDI 2020 Family Leadership award. Pam is a graduate of UNB in Canada with Undergraduate degrees in Early Childhood and Special Education and a Master's degree in Special Education. Since moving to the United States from Canada in 2014 she has been involved with several organizations providing support for families who have a deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind child in New Jersey. Previously Pam had 25 years’ experience in special education working with diverse communities in Canada and the Dominican Republic. |
Bradley Hartman Bakken Ph.D., - is the Wyoming EHDI Coordinator and serves on the Directors of Speech and Hearing Programs in State Health and Welfare Agencies (DSHPSHWA) Executive Board. Dr. Hartman Bakken is a physiologist who, prior to joining the Wyoming EHDI Program in 2012, was a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Universidad de Chile, and Kansas State University. He oversees Wyoming's late onset hearing loss (LOHL)/periodic childhood screening system and pediatric audiology clinic. |
Cheri Dowling - is the Coordinator of the Family Support and Resource Center at the Maryland School for the Deaf and the Director of Outreach and Programs with the American Society for Deaf Children and has recently joined the Maryland Deafblind Project, Connections Beyond Sight and Sound as their Family Engagement Specialist. She lives in Woodbine, MD with her husband and two young adult children, 25-year old, Patrick and 22-year old, Ryan. Cheri has been working with families who have deaf or hard of hearing children to help them navigate the special education system and providing parent to parent support since 1999. |
Evelyn Shaw Ford, M.Ed. - is a technical assistance specialist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working for over 30 years on a number of projects related to young children with or at risk for disabilities. As a technical assistance specialist, she has expertise in early identification and on issues related to child find including children with hearing loss, autism, children who have experienced maltreatment, and the use of data to target improvements. |
Gayla Guignard, M.A., CCC-A/SLP, LSLS Cert AVT - is AG Bell’s Chief Strategy Officer. In this position she promotes and supports collaboration, develops strategy to achieve AG Bell’s mission, and works cooperatively on key strategic initiatives of AG Bell and the AG Bell Academy. Gayla has worked as a direct service provider, clinical supervisor, State EHDI Coordinator, and Director of Indiana’s Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education (CDHHE) and has served and continues to serve in leadership roles on national committees/work groups. |
Sheila Moodie, PhD. - is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She is also the Director of the Family-Centered Early Intervention Laboratory in the National Centre for Audiology at Western. Prof. Moodie has spent 30 years on clinical-based research questions associated with early intervention. Most recently she has been focused on the development of approaches to supporting families on the important journey of raising a child(ren) who are Ddeaf or Hard of Hearing. |
Johnnie Sexton, Au.D. - is the Founder and Executive Director of The CARE Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to providing emotional support for families with children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Dr. Sexton has worked with children who are deaf and hard of hearing and their families for over 4 decades. He received his B.S. (1977) and M.S. (1979) degrees from East Carolina University and his Au.D. Degree (2010) from A. T. Still University/Arizona Health Sciences. Dr. Sexton owns a private practice in Educational Audiology Services in NC, providing services to over half of NC school systems with a staff of 15 Audiologists. He served as the Audiologist on the NC Department of Health and Human Services Team that designed the newborn hearing screening program for the 93 NC birthing hospitals in 1999-2001 and currently serves as the Chair of the NC Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Advisory Board. In 2018, Dr. Sexton was named the #1 Audiology Practitioner in the United States by the Oticon Focus on People Awards. |
Amy Szarkowski, PhD - is a psychologist who specializes in working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. Dr. Szarkowski is Director of The Institute at the Children’s Center for Communication/Beverly School for the Deaf (CCCBSD), which aims to conduct research, provide professional development, and partner with invested stakeholders to bridge the research-to-practice gap in the areas of Deaf Education and Special Education, focusing on supporting learners with communication challenges. Dr. Szarkowski also serves as Core Faculty for LEND (Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities) at Boston Children’s Hospital and holds an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Additionally, Dr. Szarkowski is an Associate Professor at Gallaudet University, where she teaches in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and their Families: Collaboration and Leadership Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate Program. |
New Members(Photos and Bios Coming Soon)
|
Past FL3 2017-2020 Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advisory Board FL3 is grateful for this advisory board of adults who are deaf and hard of hearing. This board made recommendations based on the results of the National Needs Assessment of families regarding Deaf Mentor/adult role model/deaf and hard of hearing guide opportunities. The Board also assisted in increasing involvement of deaf/hard of hearing individuals in EHDI systems, by participating in discussion groups, and aided in developing trainings materials for individuals who seek involvement in EHDI systems, such as guidelines for state/territory EHDI Advisory Committees and the DHH Guidelines for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Mentor/Guide/Role Model Programs. |
Past FL3 2017-2020 Scientific Language and Literacy Advisory Board FL3 is grateful for this advisory board of national experts on language and literacy development for children who are deaf/hard of hearing. This Board included professionals and parent partners from a broad range of experiences who served as advisors related to language and literacy for very young children, in all of its aspects. The Advisory Board worked to summarize the latest evidence-based research findings, identified current resources for infants/toddlers/children who are deaf or hard of hearing in cognitive, social, and emotional developmental process and developmental milestones, and developed eight tips sheets for parents to use for fun everyday activities to enhance their child’s development. |