16th ANNUAL EARLY HEARING DETECTION & INTERVENTION MEETING
February 26-28, 2017 • Atlanta, GA
EHDI FAMILY LEADERSHIP AWARD
Tony Ronco
I am very pleased to write this letter nominating Tony Ronco for the Family Leadership Award. Tony has been a parent leader in California in so many ways.
- He has been the impetus behind the successful implementation of California's chapter of Hands and Voices, uniting parents in our state after two previous attempts to set up a state Hands and Voices chapter had failed.
- He has been involved for a number of years in the planning for the California Hands and Voices Family Camp in Julian, California.
- He is on the national Hands and Voices Board.
- He is on the Board of the American Society for Deaf Children.
- He serves as the Quality Initiative advisor for California's Newborn Hearing Screening grant activities and for our Learning Collaborative.
- He worked with the California Stakeholders for American Sign Language and English, which collaborated with the California Coalition of Option Schools to successfully pass Senate Bill (SB) 210, which will require our state to develop a language assessment protocol for young Deaf and Hard of Hearing children.
- He is on the SB 210 committee that is choosing the language milestones.
Tony and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of Dakota, a wonderfully bright and friendly Deaf teenager who is a circus performer, in addition to being an academically successful student, and Austin, a hearing teenage boy who is an Eagle Scout and an outstanding student. I cannot think of a person who is more deserving of this award.