by Wendy Deters, Executive Director
Dear Child’s Voice Community,
As graduation approaches this weekend, I am taking the time to reflect on each of the incredible individuals that make up our Child’s Voice family. Each of our students, their families, their extended families, our staff, our donors, our member district representatives, our Board of Directors, and our community partners serve an important role in making Child’s Voice the thriving program that it is. This is a great time of year to recognize some of those individual contributions. I hope everyone reading this post understands that they matter to Child’s Voice. I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight three people who deserve some special recognition.
I would like to start by sharing some exciting news to share with you about our amazing colleague, Rollen Copper. He has been promoted to be the Director of Clinical Services at Child’s Voice! Rollen has been with Child’s Voice for just over 25 years and has served in a few different roles. He began his career at the Central Institute for the Deaf and has a Master’s degree in Deaf Education from Washington University. Luckily, Rollen decided to move to Illinois and be a teacher at Child’s Voice in 1996.
He began working as the Director of Early Intervention in 2013 and has grown our EI program to serve hundreds of babies and toddlers with hearing loss and their families across the Chicagoland area. Earlier this year Rollen stepped in to fill the role of managing our Audiology Department and has done a wonderful job. After careful consideration Rollen officially accepted the responsibility of overseeing all operations and activities of the Audiology and Early Intervention programs at Child’s Voice and I am thrilled.
Rollen does an amazing job of keeping things running smoothly and expertly, dealing with any issues that arise, as they often do. He is one of the most caring and consistent people I know. He is an anchor for all of us at Child’s Voice. Personally, I have learned so much from working with Rollen. He is a wealth of knowledge in the field of Deaf Education and a strong advocate for children and their families. Rollen is always quick to give credit to his team and others, but I encourage you to let him know that we recognize his contributions to Child’s Voice and are forever grateful to have him on our team.
The next two individuals I would like to recognize are this year’s recipients of our “Star Staff Award.” Each spring our staff nominates their peers for this award. It was wonderful to see the staff identify the colleagues they see going above and beyond each day. Our first Star Staff recipient is Emma Weiner! Emma is a Teaching Assistant in our P1 program. Although she has been with our program just a short time she has had a wonderful, positive impact on our students. Emma is currently studying for her Bachelor’s degree in early education and we know she is going to make an excellent teacher. What I notice the most about Emma is that she greets each and every student with a smile and that she has taken the time to make connections with all of the children. She says: “What I like most about Child’s Voice is getting to know the kids on a personal level and helping them grow into the people they aspire to be.”
Our second Star Staff recipient is Dr. Paige Gallagher! Dr. Paige is our Audiologist and serves children in all of our programs as well as in the outside community. She has been with Child’s Voice for almost 5 years. Dr. Paige started out as a graduate clinician working with Dr. Dawn Violetto and then came to work for Child’s Voice after she graduated with her Doctorate of Audiology from Illinois State University. She is the reason all of the students in our school program have clear and consistent access to sound every day that they are learning.
She is always fixing, testing, connecting, and programming devices so that hearing technology works as best as it possibly can. Dr. Paige cares for every individual she sees, whether it is a student in our P1 program, a baby she is testing for a newborn hearing screening, or an older student from a neighboring school district. She has maintained strong relationships with our community partners by providing high quality care for each patient she works with. Dr. Paige is also responsible for training the next generation of audiologists. She has had multiple students with her and has provided them exceptional mentoring. We are very lucky to have Dr. Paige on our team and I am thrilled she is being recognized!
Thank you for learning more about these special people. Take care and enjoy this special season!
Sincerely,
Wendy Deters
