Christine Thompson is a tireless advocate who provides a wealth of knowledge and valuable resources to individuals with hearing loss throughout the State of Rhode Island. She is actively involved with the Hearing Loss Association of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and the Gift of Hearing program. She has a passion for educating individuals on subjects and issues related to hearing loss.
Currently, Christine serves as Chairperson of the Rhode Island Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (CDHH) and as Co-Chair of the Hearing Loss Association-Rhode Island (HLA-RI). She has been involved with HLA-RI since 1997 and over the past 12 years, has served on several different committees within CDHH.
In 1999, Christine was instrumental in establishing "The Gift of Hearing Program" in collaboration with PARI Resource Center for Independent Living, Ocean State Center for Independent Living (OSCIL) and the University of Rhode Island's Speech and Hearing Clinic. The program provides low cost hearing aids to individuals with limited income. So far, 575 people in Rhode Island have received hearing aids thanks to The Gift of Hearing Program.
Christine has worked with CDHH to provide trainings within multiple medical settings on the topic of Communication Access for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She has coordinated presentations related to Project Endeavor, employment issues and emergency preparedness and has arranged a variety of educational presentations on the subjects of cochlear implants, internet captioning, assistive technology, digital hearing aids and more. Additionally, she has presented workshops to social workers and students at Rhode Island College of Social Work.
Furthermore, through her advocacy efforts, Christine assisted a local theater in obtaining funds for captioning of their plays. She was also a strong advocate for the captioning of all videos posted by the Governor of Rhode Island.
We commend Christine for her achievements and are pleased to honor her as the recipient of the Hamilton Relay 2012 Better Hearing and Speech Month Recognition Award for the State of Rhode Island.
This leadership recognition has been brought to you by Hamilton Relay.
About Hamilton Relay
Hamilton Relay offers a variety of services including Telecommunications Relay Services, Captioned Telephone and Internet Relay services. Hamilton provides Telecommunications Relay and/or Captioned Telephone services to 17 states, the Island of Saipan and the Virgin Islands. More information is available at hamiltonrelay.com.