15th ANNUAL EARLY HEARING DETECTION & INTERVENTION MEETING
March 13-15, 2016 • San Diego, CA
THE ANTONIA BRANCIA MAXON AWARD FOR EHDI EXCELLENCE
Stacie Ray
After learning of her young son's hearing loss as a young parent, Stacie did what all parent's do by providing all that her son needed to learn and grow with all of the resources that he needs. She learned firsthand how important it is to diagnose hearing loss as early as possible as well as the cost associated with providing care, hearing aids, cochlear implants and most importantly information and support to families.
Drawing from her own experience, Stacie went back to school to receive a Master of Science degree in Audiology in 2001 and a Doctor of Audiology degree in 2008. She then joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska in 2004.
Stacie manages multiple hearing aid clinics at the University of Nebraska as she is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to excellent audiology care and services no matter their age or financial means. However, her passion for assuring children have accessibility to this care and proper amplification led Stacie to establish HearU Nebraska.
HearU Nebraska is a children's hearing aid bank that provides care as well as hearing aids, supplies, information and support to children and their families from ages 0-18 years with a priority of newly identified children ages 0-3 years.
Stacie's devotion to HearU has provided hundreds of children across the state with the opportunity to have quality hearing aids as well as audiology services that they may not have received otherwise. Since its inception in 2008, over 400 hearing aids have been fit on over 237 children across Nebraska.
Stacie works with many resources to gain awareness for HearU as well as EHDI. In 2013, she was featured on the front page of the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper. The article's focus was explaining the importance of early hearing detection and intervention to the local community and the costs associated with a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. This article was redistributed by numerous newspapers and websites throughout the country.
Stacie also devotes herself to teaching. She continually offers audiology students at UNL the opportunity to learn through hands-on appointments with patients, which include children. The students are able to learn skills associated with fitting children with hearing aids, ear mold impressions, and using equipment to set the correct frequency and volume for each child.
Stacie is also a member of the Nebraska Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program, of the Nebraska Speech-Language and hearing Association and a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology.
Recently, Dr. Ray has begun the process of taking HearU international. She has traveled to Central America; to countries with a high number of children who are deaf or hard of hearing, but no available audiology care. She has provided hearing aids and care kids to many children that would otherwise have no access and no means of communication with the world.
Stacie has dedicated her life to helping children and families in Nebraska. She has helped hundreds of families so far and will continue to reach more.