Katherine Bouton

President

I’ve had progressive bilateral hearing loss since age 30. The cause is unknown. In 2009, I got a cochlear implant in my left ear after ten years with a hearing aid. I continue to wear a hearing aid in my right. Shortly after getting the implant, I left my decades-long job as an editor at The New York Times, so that I could concentrate on relearning to hear with a cochlear implant. I wrote a memoir of my experience with hearing loss called “Shouting Won’t Help” (2013) and later a guide to living with hearing loss called “Smart Hearing” (2018). I write a weekly blog called “Smart Hearing.”  I am the immediate past president of the New York City Chapter of HLAA and served on HLAA’s national board of trustees from 2012 to 2020. I’m a frequent speaker on hearing-loss issues.

David Landsberger

Vice President

I am an auditory scientist at the NYU Langone Medical Center. I study hearing impairment and how the auditory system responds to electrical stimulation with a cochlear implant. My work focuses on diverse topics such as improving cochlear implant algorithms, electrode designs, and music perception through a cochlear implant. In 2019, I co-founded York Sound, which is a company developing a noise reduction algorithm for hearing aids and cochlear implants that specifically removes the background of other people talking. I originally became involved in HLAA through the chapters in Southern California. There I met Katherine Bouton who invited me to participate in the HLAA NYC chapter when I moved to New York in 2013. I have been an active member of the chapter ever since. And I love ice-cream with crunchy things in it.

Maura Olson

Secretary

Although I grew up in Long Island, my heart has always been in Manhattan. I’ve lived in the West Village for over forty years.

I spent most of my career teaching in the Bethpage elementary school I attended as a child. When I began struggling to hear my students, speakers were installed in the classroom and my students used microphones when they spoke, Oh, did they love that!!! Their grandparents loved the mics as well. Over the years, they had never understood a word when they came to Grandparent’s Day, but in my room they heard everything.

After retiring from Bethpage in 2011, I attended Hunter College and earned a degree in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education. Upon graduation, I worked for the DOE as a DHH itinerant teacher.

I live with my dog, Clara, who is many doses of joy every day. I love walking with her and enjoy reading, visiting museums, watching dance performances, and meeting friends to chat.

Myra Schreibman

Treasurer

I believe I was born with hearing loss, although I didn’t start wearing hearing aids until I was five years old, beginning with one body aid and then two digital behind-the-ear hearing aids.  I mainstreamed in public school and high school, where I was given speech and lipreading therapy through New York Eye and Ear. I received my BA from Pace University.  Now I am semi-retired as a bookkeeper.  I have been involved with HLAA for 20 years, starting with the Westchester chapter - where I was Program Chair from 2004-2006.  In 2007 I joined the NYC chapter, was involved with the programming committee, then was elected Treasurer.  I was heavily involved as co-treasurer for the Westchester / New York City Walk4Hearing, first started by Anne Pope years ago.

I have had a hearing loss since I was 6 years old. Despite some academic struggles due to difficulty hearing teachers, I graduated from CCNY, where I was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, and I earned a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University. I worked in the publishing industry for many years—as a writer for TV Guide and an editor/writer for Collier’s Encyclopedia. During my tenure as a writer for Medical Economics, a magazine for physicians, I won three Neal Awards, which are presented annually to business media journalists. Since 2009, I have been an Adult Protective Services worker for Nassau County. Because writing articles and procuring information from social-work clients usually requires telephone interviews, my jobs presented hearing challenges that I have done my best to surmount—most recently by obtaining a captioned telephone. As an HLAA-NYC board member, I am co-editor of the chapter’s award-winning newsletter, News & Views.

I am a Hearing Aid Specialist and work at the not-for-profit hearing health care agency in NYC called Center for Hearing and Communication.   I was diagnosed with a mild/moderate hi-frequency hearing loss in my early 20’s.  In fact, I was diagnosed at a hearing aid convention I was attending for work.  I was fit with my first set of hearing aids a few weeks later.  At the time, my diagnosis explained a lot of my prior struggles in school, at work, even at play.  I was fortunate to work someplace that understood and was able to help.  This is also when I was first introduced to Self Help for Hard of Hearing (SHHH), which later became the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).  I am now happy to serve the community further by joining the board of HLAA. 

Committees

NEWS & VIEWS EDITORS

Gail Weiss

ADVOCACY

Speakers Bureau:  Ruth Bernstein

Looping: Jerry Bergman and Ellen Semel

Healthcare:  Toni Iacolucci and Ruth Bernstein

Communication Access: Katherine Bouton, Chair

Community Outreach: Maura Olson, Carol Karasick, Lyssy Pastrana

FINANCE

Myra Schreibman, Treasurer

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS