Bethesda, MD: The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) has appointed Edward F. Ogiba of Sarasota, Florida, to be its new director of chapter development with the primary charge of helping current chapters to grow and building new ones through strategic development, best practices and leadership training. The post entails providing HLAA’s state organizations and chapters around the country with the direction and support they need to deliver the organization’s acclaimed education, support and advocacy services to open the world of communication for those with hearing loss.
Ed will join the HLAA national office staff effective April 21, 2014.
Ed has a long career in leading the development of new products and advertising, working for many Fortune 500 companies, currently as the president of Group EFO and previously as an account director at Ogilvy & Mather.
He has served as president of the HLAA Sarasota Chapter for the past five years, been the HLAA Florida state chapter coordinator, and a Board member of the HLAA Florida State Association for the last two years. He is entering his fifth year as a Board member of the Ear Research Foundation.
In the last five years, the HLAA Sarasota Chapter’s membership under Ed’s leadership has grown significantly by offering a wider range of new education and support services, with a high-powered outreach program that has had the chapter averaging some six to eight meetings and events in the community each month.
Ed has been a local advocate for hearing loops and has been instrumental in drawing in more than 100 local theaters, churches and community venues in Southwest Florida to install hearing loops. The chapter was named Sarasota County’s “Best Cause” by SRQ Magazine in 2012, with Ed being pegged as the “Best Visionary.”
HLAA Executive Director Anna Gilmore Hall commented: “HLAA is pleased to bring this kind of experience and expertise to our efforts to build robust, vibrant HLAA Chapters across the country. Because Ed comes from a chapter background, we know he will hit the road running.”
HLAA represents 48 million Americans with hearing loss by providing its members with the education, support and advocacy to live well with hearing loss. Many HLAA members profess that the organization and its many self-empowering programs have “changed their lives.”
Ed Ogiba, who wears both a hearing aid and cochlear implant and lost his hearing primarily due to a combination of military service and Ménière’s disease, is a case in point. He attests that “HLAA saved me from a life of isolation by introducing me to listening and communication skills as well as several assistive listening devices, all of which I desperately needed to return to a normal life and resume my career.”
About the Hearing Loss Association of America
The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), founded in 1979, opens the world of communication to people with hearing loss through information, education, advocacy and support. In addition to its extensive network of chapters and state organizations across the country, HLAA produces the Walk4Hearing in 21 cities across the country, publishes the bimonthly Hearing Loss Magazine, holds annual conventions (Convention 2014 is in Austin, Texas, June 26 - 29), advocates for the rights of people with hearing loss, and conducts educational webinars. For more information, visit www.hearingloss.org
