HLAA: A Key Member on Your Aural Rehab Team

Prerecorded presentation available to view on-demand on April 17, 2021

This on-demand program is offered for FREE to all AAA 2021 Virtual Conference registrants and AAA 2021 All-Inclusive Webinar Package subscribers.  Please allow one business day after registering for the AAA 2021 Virtual Conference to receive access to activate your registration.

Presenters: Barbara Kelley and Juliëtte Sterkens, AuD

Duration: 1 hour

CEUs: 0.1 AAA

Instructional Level: Fundametal

Program Focus: Knowledge

Learning Outcomes: Upon completion, each participant in the eAudiology Web Seminar will be able to:

1. List three resources available from the Hearing Loss Association of America and its support chapters.
2. Describe 3 ways hearing loss support groups benefit clients with hearing loss. 
3. Describe 2 different telecoil programs for varying degrees of hearing loss and assistive listening situations.

Description: After the fitting, adjustments and counseling, clients are on their own to adjust to amplification, dealing with technology and the unavoidable realization their devices do not restore hearing to normal. HLAA and its members stand ready to pick up where busy audiology practices leave off by providing peer support, places to use telecoils and hearing loops, and exposure to a variety of assistive listening devices. HLAA has recently developed an array of tools that benefit consumers as well as professionals.  

Barbara Kelley, Executive Director, Hearing Loss Association of America

Barbara Kelley is the executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA). Hired by Founder Rocky Stone in 1988, Barbara has been a part of the organization’s growth, beginning with editing the first issues of the SHHH Journal until most recently the award-winning Hearing Loss Magazine, now called Hearing Life. Serving as editor for the magazine for28 years has allowed her to influence attitudes, establish lexicon, and give people credible, reliable and timely information and support, through the printed word. She has also helped manage the office team, served as deputy executive director from 2008-2016, and worked on many of the HLAA programs.

As HLAA’s chief executive officer since March 2016, Ms. Kelley is the primary spokesperson for the organization. She is responsible for overseeing the administration, programs, and strategic plan of the organization. Other key duties include fundraising, advocacy, marketing/media relations, and community outreach.

Relevant Financial Relationships

• Executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America, receives a salary
• Council member, NIDCD, serves as a Special Government Employee/Adviser

Relevant Nonfinancial Relationships

• Federal Communications Commission Disability Advisory Committee
• Food and Drug Administration’s Consumer Nominating Organizations
• Chair, Friends of the Congressional Hearing Health Caucus
• U.S. co-chair of the Consumer and Professional Advocacy Committee supporting the Delphi Cochlear Consensus Process
• Cochlear Implant International Community of Action steering committee
• Ida Institute Advisory Board and the Ida Institute Person-Centered Hearing Network
• Consumer Technology Association Hearing Accessibility leader group
• External Advisory Committee of the National Center for Deaf Health Research, University of Rochester Medical Center

Co-Presenter

Juliëtte Sterkens, AuD, Professional Adviser on Hearing Loop Technology, Hearing Loss Association of America

Juliëtte Sterkens, AuD serves as the Hearing Loss Association of America Professional Hearing loop Advisor. She has nearly 40 years of experience in the field of audiology and hearing rehabilitation. Educated in the Netherlands in Speech-Language Pathology/Acoupedics in 1979, she focused on audiology after moving to Wisconsin in 1981. In 2008 she learned how improved hearing loop technology was making a US comeback and decided to bring loops to Oshkosh to the benefit of her patients. Retired from private practice in 2012, she has since lectured extensively on the topic of telecoils and the benefits of hearing loops to professionals and consumers in North America and Europe. Her efforts have led to over 715 professional loop installations (including 400+ churches) in Wisconsin and many more beyond. For her work she has received the Wisconsin Audiologist of the Year, Arizona School of Health Sciences 2013 Humanitarian of the Year and the American Academy of Audiology Presidential Awards.

Relevant Financial Relationships: 
• Receives a consulting fee and reimbursement for expenses  from the Hearing Loss Association of America thanks to grant funding from the David & Carol Myers Foundation

Relevant Nonfinancial Relationships
• Member of  HLAA’s Get-In-The-Hearing-Loop (GITHL) Committee
• Member of the International Hearing Access Committee (IHAC) 
• Board member of the Hear in the Fox Cities Foundation