Cheryl Heppner of Fairfax, Virginia has been selected as the recipient of the Hamilton Relay 2015 Deaf Community Leader Award for the state of Virginia. Cheryl is a tireless advocate who works for the rights of individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened and deaf-blind.
Cheryl has been a member of the Association of Late-Deafened Adults (ALDA) since the 1980s and served as the president and newsletter editor for the Potomac Chapter. In addition, Cheryl has been actively involved in the Nova One Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) for many years. She has also served with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network (DHHCAN), the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC) and the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VDDHH).
Cheryl is a dedicated advocate and has been a strong proponent for many efforts that affect individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, including television and movie captioning, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Accessible Radio for the Deaf and Blind, Emergency Text-to-911 and establishment of the Virginia Relay Advisory Council.
Cheryl has been described by her peers as gracious, calm and fair with a talent for finding the silver lining in any situation. She has been a role model for all Virginians with hearing loss. We commend Cheryl for her leadership and passion for the Deaf community and are proud to present her with the Hamilton Relay 2015 Deaf Community Leader Award for the state of Virginia.
This leadership recognition has been brought to you by Hamilton Relay.
About Hamilton Relay
Hamilton Relay provides contracted Telecommunications Relay and Captioned Telephone services through 25 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.