Hearing Loss Association of America

Michael H. Stone – President & Stone Family Representative

Michael H. Stone is employed by Donatelli Development. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Wheeling Jesuit, a master’s degree in International and Strategic Affairs from Georgetown University, a law degree from Antioch, and a L.L.M. in Securities Regulation from Georgetown University. He started his career on Capitol Hill as the legislative director to Representative James L. Oberstar (D-MN). He later became a Washington lobbyist representing Fortune 500 companies. He has worked as Deputy Counsel for the Federal Asset Disposition Association (renamed the Resolution Trust Corporation) which is a part of the administrative branch of government. In 1990 he entered private practice and co-founded Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc., which received a license to provide satellite-based telecommunications service. In 1995 he co-founded Eagle Eye, Inc., a company which provides satellite-based tracking services. He has also taught history at a private school and served as an advisor to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Mr. Stone has written numerous book reviews for Best Sellers magazine, has been an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University and has served on numerous corporate boards of directors. As the Rocky Stone family representative to the Board he brings a unique historical perspective of the organization’s history and a passion for people with hearing loss to the board. In addition he also brings legal experience and problem-solving skills.

Committees: Mr. Stone serves on the Finance, Marketing and Development, and Rocky Stone Scholarship Committees. He served on the first Board of the organization, then called Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH). He has served his current term since 2005.

Jeannette E. Kanter – Vice President

Jeannette E. Kanter has an M.S.S.S. from Boston University School of Social Work and has worked as a social worker and a marriage and family therapist. She coordinated a graduate program in Community Services at the University of Rochester supervising the field work component. In addition she served as coordinator for Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is an active member of the Hearing Loss Association, Rochester Chapter, having served on many committees and as secretary, vice president and president. Most recently she has organized and facilitated an HLAA Cochlear Implant Group which is a sub group of the Rochester Chapter. She brings skills in the areas of advocacy, mental and physical health, education and cochlear implants to the board.

For over 30 years, Ms. Kanter wore hearing aids, but in 2000 she received a cochlear implant which “gave me back my life.” She can now use the telephone, hear music, listen to the radio, but most importantly, she can hear her grandchildren and the birds. She still delights in hearing new sounds and considers the cochlear implant her most important miracle in recent years.

Committees: Ms. Kanter is a North East Region representative to the board. She chairs the Chapter-National Partnership Committee and serves on the Policy Committee and the Planning Strategy Work Group. She has been on the board since 2005.

Pete C. Fackler - Treasurer

Pete Fackler is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). He has an A.B. in economics from Duke University and a M.B.A. from the University of Michigan’s Graduate School of Business. Pete’s career spanned nearly 30 years in higher education where he mixed classroom teaching with administrative assignments in virtually all of the operating areas of the academic enterprise. Retiring in 2003, he is now a private investor with an emerging interest in options trading.

Pete received a cochlear implant in 2004 and about the same time discovered the Hearing Loss Association of America. He is active with the HLAA Rochester chapter and, in 2009, co-chaired the Walk4Hearing committee and is chair of the theater committee which has successfully worked to bring captioned live theater to Rochester. He is a founding member of the finance (investment) committee of the Maine Health Access Foundation. Pete brings to the HLAA board of trustees experience and expertise in finance, strategic planning, and marketing and development.

Committees: Mr. Fackler serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Finance Committee. He is a member of the Nominating and Board Development Committee, and the Planning Strategy Committee. He was appointed to the board in March of 2007 and elected to an at-large seat in June of 2007.

Deb Charlea Baker – Secretary

Deb Charlea Baker is serving her first term on the Board of Trustees as a Regional Representative. She was a Vocational Rehabilitation counselor for over 20 years working with people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. She holds a master's degree in Community Psychology from Springfield College. Her experience with hearing loss is both personal and professional. Besides having hearing loss herself, she has an adult son and several family members who have hearing loss.

Ms. Baker has been a member of HLAA (SHHH) since 1988. She is also a long time member of ADARA - Professionals Networking for Excellence in Service Delivery with Individuals Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. She has been actively involved over the years with a number of community initiatives working to improve services for Vermonters with hearing loss and is currently serving on the Hearing Aid Task Force. Ms. Baker brings experience to the board in advocacy, young adult issues, parent and family involvement, hearing assistive technology and an understanding of audiological and medical issues related to hearing loss.

Committees: Ms. Baker is a Northeast Region representative to the board. She serves on the Chapter-National Partnership Committee, and the Rocky Stone Rememberance Committee. She has been a member of the board since 2006.

Anne T. Pope — Immediate Past President

Anne T. Pope is the immediate past president of the Hearing Loss Association and chair of the nominating committee. She holds a master’s degree in business policy from Columbia University Business School’s Executive Program and is a former human resources executive. Ms Pope is coauthor of a chapter on the benefits of support groups for Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation to be issued in April. In collaboration with SHHH, she wrote Hear, Solutions, Skills and Sources for People with Hearing Loss, published by Dorling Kindersley in 1997. She was profiled in the video Stay Tuned: the Challenge of Hearing Loss for which she was also the principal interviewer.

Ms. Pope played a leading role in the development of the HLAA Walk4Hearing program. She has been vice president of HLAA, chair of the Marketing and Development Committee and a member of the Finance and Nominating and Board Development Committees. She is a member of the New York State Association Board and the HLAA- Manhattan Chapter planning committee.

In addition to her work for the Hearing Loss Association of America, Ms. Pope is a member of the Committee on Accessibility for People with Disabilities for the Episcopal Diocese of New York

Committees: Ms. Pope is chair of the nominating committee and a member of the executive, finance, and fundraising committees. She has been a member of the board since 2001.

Francis Beecher

Francis Beecher is retired after 27 years as a successful businessman and 15 years as a hearing instrument specialist. He has a hearing loss and has been a member of HLAA (SHHH) since 1982. He is a past president of the Sarasota HLAA Chapter. He is a member of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Tampa, Florida AG Bell group and the International Hearing Society.

Mr. Beecher is a strong advocate for improving the design and manufacture of hearing aids and has authored many articles on this topic. In addition to advocacy skills, he brings to the board experience in board policy, marketing, audiology, cochlear implants and hearing assistive technology.

Committees: Mr. Beecher serves on the Advocacy Committee. He has been on the board since 2005.

Diana D. Bender, Ph. D.

Diana Bender is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. She received her master’s and doctorate degrees in organic chemistry at the University of Munich, in Munich, Germany. In her professional career she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware, followed by 21 years as a research chemist and product manager at a Philadelphia area specialty chemicals company. She was first diagnosed with a progressive hearing loss at the age of 10 and received a cochlear implant in 2004.

She has been a member of HLAA since 1995. She served as the chapter president of the Montgomery County, PA chapter from1997 until 2001 and has been the editor of that chapter’s newsletter since 1997. She has been a member of the HLA-PA Advisory Council since the state office originated in 2001 and has served as the state director of HLA-PA since 2004. From 2004 – 2006 she represented HLAA on the Courthouse Access Advisory Committee, a committee convened by the U.S. Access Board. She has served on several state advisory committees in Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Gallaudet University Peer Mentoring Program.

Kathy M. Borzell

Kathy M. Borzell has been a member of the Hearing Loss Association of America since 1995. She has a severe to profound hereditary sensorineural hearing loss which began in her late teens. As the child of a parent with hearing loss and the mother of an adult child with hearing loss, she has a unique perspective that allows her to relate to multiple aspects of living with hearing loss.
Ms. Borzell became a member of the Florida Association of SHHH in 1997 and later served as treasurer and state chapter coordinator. She served as president of the Tampa SHHH Chapter in 1998. She was a member of a consumer and service provider group, collectively referred to as “The Summit” that successfully advocated for the Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Ms. Borzell is a member of the Hearing Loss Association of Tampa chapter and serves on the Hearing Loss Association of Florida board of trustees. She represents HLA-FL on the TASA (Telecommunication Access Systems Act) Advisory Committee, which advises the Florida Public Service Commission on the telecommunication needs of the hard of hearing, Deaf and Deaf-blind in Florida.

During her nine years with Deaf and Hearing Connection of Tampa Bay, as a case manager and a community education specialist, Ms. Borzell worked with senior citizens with hearing loss, facilitated speech reading and communication strategies classes and initiated and coordinated various workshops for people with hearing loss in the workplace. She is a graduate of the Hearing Loss Association of America Academy of Hearing Loss Support Specialists.

Committees: Ms Borzell serves on the Executive Committee, the Rocky Stone Humanitarian Award, and the Marketing and Development Committees. She has been a member of the board since 2005.

David Crocker

David Crocker has been a member of the Hearing Loss Association of America since 1992 when he became involved with the SHHH Young Adults Group. He was a charter member of the Annapolis, Maryland Group, serving as newsletter editor, vice-chair and chair. He served on the local organizing committee as fundraising chair for the 1994 SHHH Convention in Baltimore. After moving to Virginia, he became active in the Northern Virginia Chapter, serving as co-president and later on its steering committee. He is currently the Hearing Loss Association of America representative on the Virginia Relay Advisory Council, and was the chair of the Council for more than three years.

Mr. Crocker has been active as an advocate, participating in Hearing Loss Association of America advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill, and with the Northern Virginia Community Roundtable, a coalition of Deaf and hard of hearing groups that advocate in the Virginia General Assembly for increased funding for communication access, outreach funding, and hearing aid insurance coverage. He was part of the first Northern Virginia Regional Conference on Hearing Loss, assisted with Sam Trychin’s Coping with Hearing Loss Workshops and has co-presented other workshops at Hearing Loss Association national conventions. Mr. Crocker is also a director of the board of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, and has served one term as chair.

Committees: Mr. Crocker is a South Region representative to the board. He serves on the Finance Committee and the Families-Young Adults Committee, and chairs the Marketing and Development Committee. He is a member of the Planning Strategy Work Group. He has been on the board since 2004.

James J. DeCaro, Ph.D.

James DeCaro is a professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one of eight colleges of Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the director of NTID’s Postsecondary Education Network-International (PEN-International), a multinational collaborative network of colleges and universities serving deaf students that is funded by more than $10 million in grants from The Nippon Foundation of Japan. DeCaro is also director of the NTID Center on Access Technology, a center that focuses on the application of innovative technologies to facilitate access to educational setting for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Prior to holding these posts he served as dean of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf for 14 academic years; two of those years as interim director and CEO. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in instructional technology.

DeCaro has been a Rotary International Scholar at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (England) and a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Orebro University (Sweden). He holds an honorary professorship at Tianjin University of Technology (China). DeCaro was also awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Bauman Moscow State Technical University (Russia). In 2008 he received the FESCO award of Japan for his service to humanity.

Paul Lurie

Paul Lurie is an equity partner in the Chicago office of the law firm of Schiff Hardin LLP. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and its law school. He specializes in arbitration and mediation for the construction industry. He is involved in many local not-for-profit companies involved in the arts and has served roles such as general counsel and chair of capital campaign committees. He is past chair and current member of the Executive Committee of The Family Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, a clinical and research institution specializing in issues of mental health of individuals in families. He is a trustee of the Foundation for Hearing and Speech Research in Chicago, an organization that supports pediatric cochlear implants. He is a long-time member of the Cochlear Corporation’s Consumer Advocate Panel.

Mr. Lurie was responsible for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance of the FBI Washington, D.C., tour facility for people with communication disabilities, for landline telephone compliance of the Amtrak station in Springfield, IL, and for an assistive listening system in a local major performing arts facility. He brings to the board experience in advocacy, cochlear implants, hearing assistive technology, mental health and legal issues.

Committees: Mr. Lurie serves on the Executive Committee. In addition to chairing the Planning Strategy Work Group he serves on the Marketing and Development, and Advocacy Committees. He has been on the board since 2006.

Vic M. Matsui

In his professional career, Vic M. Matsui, was assigned to the American embassies of six foreign countries, often dealing with the senior most members of the respective governments and societies in matters of policy differences. He was a member of the Lions International Movement where he was engaged in fundraising to help indigent people. He is a member and past president of the Williamsburg HLAA chapter. He currently edits the chapter newsletter. He also serves as the Virginia state chapter coordinator.

Mr. Matsui represents HLAA on the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation ADA Advisory Committee and Virginia Advisory Council for the Mental Health for the Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Late Deafened and Hard of Hearing People. Mr. Matsui brings experience to the board in advocacy, health, fundraising and leadership. He is the 2007 Hearing Loss Association Annual Fund Chair.

Committees: Mr. Matsui serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Rocky Stone Humanitarian Award Committee. He is also a member of the Policy, Marketing and Development, Chapter-National Partnership committees, and is a member of the Planning Strategy Workgroup. He has been a member of the board since 2005.

Richard P. Melia, Ph.D.

Richard P. Melia, Ph.D., retired in May 2006 as director, Division of Research Sciences, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Melia worked for the federal government on disability and rehabilitation research, training, and policy for 36 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern University and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from University of Massachusetts- Amherst with an emphasis in public administration and public health. The National Rehabilitation Association named. Dr. Melia as the Mary E. Switzer Scholar in 1984. He served as consulting editor for three major rehabilitation publications during his career (American Rehabilitation, Journal of Rehabilitation Administration, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation). He authored or co-authored numerous studies, reports, and peer reviewed articles. He helped shape numerous interdisciplinary, interagency, international, and intergovernmental activities and research initiatives addressing rehabilitation, independent living, and disability policy.

Dr. Melia served as president of his neighborhood civic association in Arlington, VA, and was honored by the Arlington School Board for volunteer service on college admissions to Wakefield High School. He served on a study group that led to Arlington’s Commission on Physically Disabled Persons. He has been active in his church’s federal credit union as a member of the board of directors and chair, Supervisory (audit) Committee. Dr. Melia joined the board of directors of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA) in June, 2006.

Dr. Melia was appointed an Oak Ridge Associated Universities (OARU) Fellow in October 2006 to participate in reviews of electrophysiology and electrical stimulation research for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Medical devices that rely on electrophysiology and electrical stimulation include cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, retinal stimulators for blindness, cochlear implants, middle ear hearing devices, spinal cord stimulators, and peripheral nerve stimulators. Dr. Melia has been a binaural hearing aid user for 14 years. His mother had a hearing loss and his sister is also a hearing aid user.

Committees: Dr. Melia serves on the Policy Committee, the Rocky Stone Scholarship Committee, and the Advocacy Committees. He has served on the board since June of 2007.

Dr. Joseph J. Montano, Ed.D.

Joseph Montano is an Associate Professor of Audiology in Clinical Otolaryngology and Director of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital. He received his Ed.D. in Audiology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University; his M.A. degree from New York University and is certified in audiology (CCC-A) through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Dr. Montano serves on the New York State Licensure Board and is a member of the ASHA Board of Ethics. He is co-editor of Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation, a text book for audiology doctoral programs.

Before his affiliation with Weill Cornell, Dr. Montano was an Associate Professor at Long Island University/C.W. Post and a previous director of the Department of Communication Disorders at Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. Dr. Montano’s clinical expertise is in the area of audiologic rehabilitation, with particular interest in adjustment to adult onset hearing loss, hearing assistive technology systems and hearing aids.