Team

Pam Dawson has been working in the field of Early Intervention for over 30 years. She holds undergraduate degrees in Early Childhood Development and
Education, and a Masters in Early Intervention from University of Maine. She opened Building Blocks preschool, an inclusive early education program that served 450 families over 17 years. Today she enjoys her work as part of the hear ME now team of professionals focused on addressing the needs of those with hearing loss. Her personal connection to participating in music experiences of all kinds drew her to our mission.

Cathy Janelle has over 25 years of experience serving young children and families with hearing loss. She graduated from the
University of Maine’s Communication Disorders program and later worked as a public school speech clinician for several years and coordinated special services for children at Head Start centers in rural Alaska. She went to obtain a Master’s degree at University of Oregon’s Communication Disorders & Sciences program where she trained with pioneer in early intervention, Dr. Diane Bricker. Cathy returned to Maine in 1996 to provide early intervention speech-language services for Child Development Services- Cumberland for four years. Currently, she works with children birth age to seven and their families and provides consultative services to public school speech language
pathologists and classroom teachers. Additionally, Cathy is certified as a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist/Certified Auditory-Verbal therapist through Alexander Graham Bell Association and holds a certificate in Auditory Learning for Young Children with Hearing Loss via distance education from University of North Carolina.

Carrie Chojnowski has nearly 20 years of experience serving young children and families with hearing loss. After getting her Masters in Speech-Language Pathology from Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in Boston, she worked at Clarke School East in Canton, MA for three years. She returned to Maine in 2003 and worked at hear ME now until 2019. She moved with her family to Maryland and continues to provide TeleHealth speech therapy services. Carrie was the first person in Maine to be certified as a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist/Auditory-Verbal Therapist through the Alexander Graham Bell Association. She works with babies and children of all ages with hearing loss, their families and adults with cochlear implants. She also provides consultative services to public school speech-language pathologists and classroom teachers. Carrie was previously on the board with the Maine Newborn Hearing Screening and facilitated Maine’s first adult cochlear implant club.

Kerry Young is a speech language pathologist specializing in listening and spoken language skills with over 20 years of experience. She previously worked at the Moog Center for Deaf Education as an assistant both in the classrooms as well as audiology prior to receiving her graduate degree from Truman State University. After obtaining her graduate degree she went back to the Moog center for another 3 years. She moved around the country and held various positions; speech therapist, administrator and graduate faculty member, and provided presentations to other professionals to assist them in their skill set for their students/patients. Kerry has experience with both in person and telehealth therapy to individuals who are deaf/hard of hearing from birth-92 for over 10 years. She is ASHA certified, LSLS Certified Auditory Verbal Educator and holds numerous state licensures for telehealth services. Kerry and her husband reside in Riley, Kansas.