Child’s Voice Announces New Board Members

We are pleased to welcome Meg McSherry Breslin and Shannon Deamer to our Board of Directors.

Meg McSherry Breslin has more than 30 years’ experience as a writer and communicator, including 10 years as a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune. At the Tribune, she covered children and family health topics, education, and child welfare, among many other general interest and magazine stories.

Meg is currently a freelance journalist and a consultant for The Grossman Group, a Chicago-based corporate communications agency that specializes in strategic storytelling and internal employee communications. Meg works with leaders to support communications efforts and to tell compelling stories that engage and motivate employees. Her client experience includes work for many pharmaceutical and health care companies, among others.

Meg also worked for several years as a freelance writer for Crain’s Chicago Business, the New York Times, the University of Chicago Alumni Magazine and Northwestern University publications. As a strategic communications consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Chicago area nonprofits and universities, she wrote and edited numerous corporate annual reports, employee magazines, and presentations and speeches for top-level executives. In her various roles for newspapers, non-profits, universities, and corporations, she has interviewed hundreds of C-suite executives and senior leaders.

Meg holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts/journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a graduate degree in journalism from Ohio State University. At Ohio State, she was selected as a Kiplinger Fellow in Investigative Reporting and served as a graduate teaching fellow. Meg has also been a lecturer in journalism at Columbia College Chicago and has received numerous writing awards for her journalistic work from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Education Writers Association.

Meg is married to Matt Breslin and lives in the suburbs with her four children. She has a personal connection to the vision and mission of Child’s Voice. She has a hearing disorder — Meniere’s Disease — and recently received a cochlear implant in one ear.

Shannon Deamer is the founder and chief executive officer of The Deamer Group, a national talent acquisition solution serving hiring leaders in various industries. As a service-oriented leader, Shannon directs The Deamer Group on developing the most effective hiring practices for employers and improved job search strategies for job seekers.

According to Shannon, “I first learned about Child’s Voice when I met Kate Bousum while working for a nonprofit search firm in Chicago and instantly, I was drawn to the mission of supporting children with hearing loss and their families. While I am not personally impacted by hearing loss, nor within my immediate family, I grew up in a home focused on education and serving children with special needs. My mother, now retired, worked as a teacher’s aide in special education with young children (ages 4 – 6) who were impacted by various disabilities. What I learned from her is that each child deserved an opportunity to thrive, no matter what difficult cards they had been dealt.

I have carried those lessons with me throughout life and have sought opportunities to continue serving including through work at my church, Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, LA and my former employment with the State of Louisiana as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor as well as with Jobs for Youth Chicago as a Program Director.”

A resident of Baton Rouge, LA, Shannon earned both her BS in Psychology and BA in Sociology from University of New Orleans, and an MA in Industrial/Organization Psychology from Louisiana Tech University. Most recently, she has completed her coursework toward a Doctorate in Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Shannon is a Certified Staffing Professional as well as a Certified Search Consultant with the American Staffing Association. She is also a dynamic presenter and speaker, having led numerous workshops for various organizations. She continues to oversee company operations while appearing as a speaker at events across the U.S. Using her mastery and leadership abilities, Shannon is invariably passionate about her goal to positively impact the lives of others.