Allysa Dittmar of Baltimore, Maryland and been selected as the recipient of the Hamilton Relay 2018 Deaf Community Leader Award for the state of Maryland.
Allysa the co-founder and president of ClearMask, a company that makes full-face transparent surgical masks to make communication easier. She came up with the idea after experiencing difficulty communicating with health professionals after an interpreter was not provided and all staff wore masks, which limited lip-reading and facial expressions.
Allysa is an activist, supporter and volunteer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She is chair of the Cultural and Linguistic Competence Committee for the statewide Behavioral Health Advisory Council in Maryland and has worked with the Deafness-Related Evaluations and More (DREAM) clinic, providing neuropsychological services to children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
During her years working at the Governor’s Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, she focused on health policy, access and mental health issues and was involved in changing state regulations to provide access to telehealth for people who are deaf or hard of hearing through ASL-fluent providers. She was also heavily involved in pushing for text-to-911 emergency services in Maryland, which was adopted by the State of Maryland this spring.
We commend Allysa for her leadership and advocacy and are proud to present her with the Hamilton Relay 2018 Deaf Community Leader Award for the state of Maryland.
This leadership recognition has been brought to you by Hamilton Relay.
About Hamilton Relay
Hamilton Relay provides contracted Traditional Relay and Captioned Telephone services through 24 contracts to 18 states, the District of Columbia and the Island of Saipan, and is a provider of Internet-based Captioned Telephone services nationwide. More information is available at hamiltonrelay.com.