Welcome New Staff: HLAA National Chapter and Membership Coordinator

April 8, 2019, Bethesda, MD: Carla Beyer-Smolin is the new HLAA national chapter and membership coordinator. HLAA Chapters can look to her for support and for guidance in starting new chapters.

Executive Director Barbara Kelley says, “Carla is uniquely qualified for this position. She was part of our staff in the 1990s working in both the chapter and membership departments. Having a hearing loss herself, she has insight into living and working with hearing loss. Carla left our organization to raise her family, now she is back with the HLAA family. I know everyone will be supportive as she steps into her new role.”

During Carla’s time with our organization in previous years, she also coordinated the children’s workshops for our conventions. She developed and managed Heroes for Hearing Loss, a mentoring program for children with hearing loss. Carla also helped created some key publications. She wrote the “ADA Begins with You” column in our then hard-copy publication, SHHH News, that went to chapters. She also created and published the SHHH Ventures newsletter that went to young adults with hearing loss.

Carla said, “I look forward to meeting our new members and reconnecting with those I have known over the years. HLAA Chapters are the lifeblood of our organization and I’m excited about all the new ways we connect with our chapters and supporters, especially through virtual meetings. I’ll see many of you at HLAA2019 in Rochester where we have a lineup of chapter-focused workshops.”

Carla met her husband, Mark, through the SHHH Young Adults Group. They live in Maryland and have two children, a son in college and a teen-age daughter.

Carla can be reached at cbeyer-smolin@hearingloss.org. Find an HLAA Chapter near you.