Peggy Ellertsen's peers describe her as a "fierce and effective" advocate for individuals with hearing loss. As her own hearing deteriorated, Peggy found that hearing aids alone were not enough and challenged herself and others to look both to assistive listening technologies as well as non-technical practices to maximize the benefit of hearing aids and improve personal lifestyle needs.
Peggy served on the Steering Committee of the Hearing Loss Association of America's (HLAA) Boston Chapter (Hear@Boston) and plans the chapter's Speaker and Workshop Series where she works with Board members devising a series of educational presentations and workshops that increase membership in the chapter. She works with her HLAA Boston colleagues to facilitate partnerships with the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where regular accessible tours now include a FM assistive listening system guide to selected galleries. In addition, Peggy helps plan the annual New England Walk4Hearing event and other fundraisers supporting the work of the Boston HLAA chapter.
Trained as a speech, Language and Reading Specialist, she has been a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) for more than 40 years and is a member of ASHA's Special Interest Group for Aural Rehabilitation and Implementation. Peggy has worked to educate audiologists about the importance of aural rehabilitation from the perspective of individuals who live with hearing loss. To that end, she has given presentations at the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology Institute and published a paper in the Journal of the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology,
Peggy conducts extensive outreach to audiologists, continuing education groups and university audiology graduate training programs. She works tirelessly to keep her community up-to-date regarding local and national events pertaining to best practices in hearing loss management. Hamilton commends Peggy for her leadership and commitment to improving the lives of individuals with hearing loss.
This leadership recognition has been brought to you by Hamilton Relay.
About Hamilton Relay
Hamilton Relay provides contracted Telecommunications Relay and/or Captioned Telephone services to 16 states and the Island of Saipan, and is a provider of Internet-based Captioned Telephone services nationwide. More information is available at hamiltonrelay.com.