Donna Sorkin Joins Cochlear Corporation as Consumer Affairs Vice President

DENVER - Cochlear Corporation announced today that Donna Sorkin will join the company as Vice President, Consumer Affairs beginning in December 2001. Sorkin will be responsible for advocacy and educational issues affecting the cochlear implant community.

''We are delighted to have Donna join the Cochlear team. In her role as Consumer Affairs Vice President, Donna will apply her extensive experience in the creation and implementation of educational and advocacy efforts focused on early intervention and increased technological accessibility for the hearing loss community,'' said Jim Miller, President of Cochlear's Americas Region.

Prior to joining Cochlear Corporation, Sorkin was executive director of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell), the largest international organization focused on pediatric hearing loss. Donna experienced a progressive profound hearing loss as an adult and is a Nucleus 22 recipient, which provides her personal insight into issues key to the hearing loss community. As executive director, she was responsible for a wide-ranging advocacy program for children and adults, and leading AG Bell's effort to create a strong Internet presence for the association and its constituencies. Sorkin also worked extensively with educators, representatives of the hearing health care field, researchers, and government officials to increase awareness and understanding of hearing health issues.

Prior to joining AB Bell, Sorkin served as executive director of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH), the largest international consumer organization in the hearing loss field. She coordinated activities for the organization's 250 chapters, collaborated with authors to develop books on hearing loss to be sold in mainstream retail stores - a first in the field - and organized annual conventions that included the first scientific research symposia for consumers.
In 1998 Sorkin was reappointed to her second term on the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board; President Clinton first appointed her in 1994. The Secretary of Health and Human Services also appointed her to the National Deafness and Other Communications Disorders Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health.

Sorkin earned her Masters in City Planning from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and her B.A. in economics from Mount Holyoke College, graduating cum laude with honors in economics.

Sorkin is married and has one son.

Reprinted with permission of
https://www.HearingExchange.com.

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