THE ANTONIA BRANCIA MAXON AWARD FOR EHDI EXCELLENCE
Malia Corde
I am nominating Malia Corde for the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence for her successful efforts to improve Early Hearing Detection and Intervention in New Jersey, including:
(1) Working with the New Jersey Departments of Health, Human Services Division of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Education, to develop educational materials for professionals and families on early hearing detection and intervention which were disseminated to every district in New Jersey and which are available on the websites of all three agencies as well as on SPAN's website (SPAN is the Parent Training and Information Center, Family to Family Health Information Center, Family Voices State Affiliate, and Statewide Parent to Parent program for New Jersey), making critical information available to a broad audience;
(2) Working with the New Jersey Departments of Health and Human Services DDHH to plan and implement a bi-annual Family Learning Day for families of children with deafness and hearing loss and/or deaf-blindness. This included bringing in funding from the Centers for Disease Control to support the conference. The conference includes panel presentations of diverse parents, professionals, and youth with deafness and hearing loss, including an inspirational presentation one year by a young man with deaf-blindness;
(3) Facilitating a series of focus groups with parents of children with deafness and hearing loss on the strengths and opportunities for improvement in New Jersey's EHDI program;
(4) Collaborating with national Hands and Voices on a day-long training and strategic planning session bringing together parent leaders and professionals working with children with deafness or hearing loss in 2012;
(5) Developing and directing a successful family-to-family support program for families of children with deafness and hearing loss and/or deaf-blindness, including support for parents who speak 8 languages from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds so that diverse families of children with deafness or hearing loss can receive culturally and linguistically competent parent to parent support;
(6) Integrating information about early hearing detection and intervention into the medical home learning collaborative sessions of New Jersey's Integrated Systems projects aimed at improving performance on the six core outcomes for children with special healthcare needs, including deafness and hearing loss; and
(7) Serving as a key member of New Jersey's EHDI Learning Collaborative team to improve services to and outcomes for children and youth with deafness and hearing loss.