Hello! My name is Kimberly Parker. I am a Hearing Wellness Educator and Advocate. I am passionate about teaching and supporting people with hearing loss; as well as families and friends who serve as communication partners. I work with people who want to improve their comprehension and communication while living with hearing loss; because life is worth hearing! 

There are many myths and misconceptions about hearing loss and not enough education or support for people and families who are struggling with it. When someone in your family has a hearing loss, the whole family has a hearing problem.

That’s where I come in. I support people through aural rehabilitation. I teach communication strategies for best hearing practices, self-advocacy skills and communication accessibility, to name a few. I provide resources and offer solutions that you don't  know exist. I answer questions that you never knew you had. I teach online courses and I also work with people privately. I love what I do! You could say that this is what I was born to do!

I was born in the mid-sixties and was diagnosed with a significant hearing loss when I was eight years old. My family denied it and it went untreated. School was difficult for me academically and socially. Thank goodness for the arts! In high school my drama teacher encouraged me to audition and I earned a theater scholarship to Boise State University. In my junior year, one of my professors suspected I had hearing loss and urged me to see an audiologist.

I was diagnosed with a severe to profound hearing loss in both ears and I got my first pair of hearing aids when I was 22. They  drove me crazy and I didn’t receive any aural rehabilitation. The audiologist showed me how to change the batteries and wished me well, and that was it. I never saw him again.

Consequently, I seldom wore my hearing aids (a very common occurrence). Without any education about hearing loss, assistive technology, or how to adjust to wearing hearing aids, I was clueless about how to help myself and I paid a huge price. 

Hearing aids alone did not solve my problem. I needed training in AR (aural rehabilitation) but it was never offered. I had no idea it existed because it’s rarely available. It would have made a life changing positive impact on my development emotionally, mentally, physically and professionally. My tenacious spirit and “tie a knot and hang on” attitude saw me through some pretty dark years. That and the birth of my children.

I always wanted to be a mother and the joy I felt after the birth of our first son gave me the purpose and meaning I needed to persevere. Our second son was born two years later. My baby boys were the light of my life and the impetus that led me to “try again” and purchase new hearing aids. 

As we raised our family, I taught drama classes for the local school district and volunteered as a cub-scout leader and religious education teacher. Having a progressive hearing loss, meant that I continued to lose my hearing. There came a time when hearing aids no longer helped me. I became deaf in my late thirties. I’m sure you can imagine, those were the worst of times.

The best of times came several years later in 2012, when I qualified to receive my first cochlear implant and it literally transformed my life. I was 45 years old and my world exploded, in a good way. I went from only hearing 12% of speech, to hearing 92%. Those are highly unusual results, it was a miracle! This time I received training in “aural rehabilitation”; which is absolutely imperative to the success of anyone who wears hearing aids or cochlear implants.

Suddenly I could hear and the world of speech and sound opened up to me. I couldn’t wait to start living my life to the fullest. I went back to school at Gallaudet University and I graduated from the  Peer Mentoring Program in 2013 with a 3.9 GPA. I am very proud of that, I worked hard for it. After graduating, I knew that I wanted to raise awareness for hearing loss, an “invisible epidemic” that affects over 48 million Americans of ALL ages. 

I was committed to speaking to large audiences with my message of hope and resilience. So I drew upon my BA in Theatre and I wrote, produced and performed a solo play called “Lost in Sound” which debuted at Seattle’s Town Hall in 2015. I hired a professional film crew to capture my performance and sold the DVD’s on Amazon. 

Soon after that, I went on to serve on the board of trustees as the VP of outreach for the Hearing Loss Association of Washington. After my three year term, the Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing contacted me and offered me a teaching contract to travel the state offering workshops to raise awareness for hearing loss. I created and facilitated an experiential workshop called “Welcome to my World'' in 2019 & 2020 and then the global pandemic brought everything to a halt.

The masks we had to wear during the pandemic left me deaf again and I was miserable. I rely heavily on lip reading for communication and masks make that impossible. My anxiety and fatigue skyrocketed and depression followed. My hard of hearing friends were having the same experiences. I knew that I had to do something to help myself and my community.

In response to the fear and isolation brought on by the pandemic, I founded HOPE (Hearing Other People's Experiences). A free national online support group offering education, advocacy and resources for people with hearing loss. I asked the Hearing Loss Association of Washington to sponsor it and I invited six people to volunteer and help me facilitate it. We have been meeting online for over three years. To date, we have helped several hundred people with hearing loss, offering them much needed support and compassion.

Hearing loss has been a life-long journey of discovery for me. As I work with others and listen to their stories, I am deeply inspired by their strength, courage, determination and adaptability. I am forever grateful to be hearing with my cochlear implants and it brings me great joy to be able to help others navigate their own hearing journeys. Together we educate ourselves and move beyond merely coping and surviving. We find hope, humor and encouragement as we learn to accept and embrace our lives with hearing loss and thrive!