Covid dominated the national conversation when audiologist Eileen Davis-Roesler鈥檚 former employer, the University of Vermont Medical Center, reached out about the possibility of working with a curtailed case load on an as-needed basis. Davis-Roesler appreciated the gesture.
鈥淏ut I couldn't go back even if I wanted to because by then everyone in a hospital setting was already wearing masks. And I am 100 percent reliant on lip-reading,鈥� said the profoundly deaf Davis-Roesler.
The virus that Davis-Roesler jokingly says 鈥渞uined [her] career鈥� nonetheless forged a pathway to the conferral of a Master鈥檚 degree from the TC Deaf & Hard of Hearing program.
Her fourth graduate degree is the latest in an odyssey of learning sprung from a suggestion that the preschool age Davis-Roesler be educated in an institutional setting.
Davis-Roesler鈥檚 parents instead chose to raise a non-hearing child no differently than her hearing brother and sister.
鈥淢y parents essentially taught me how to talk,鈥� says Davis-Roesler, who prior to TC earned a Masters in Deaf Rehabilitation from NYU, a Master鈥檚 in Audiology from Hunter College and a doctorate in Audiology from the University of Florida.
Davis-Roesler along the way married and moved to Chicago, where she and her husband started the family that four years ago settled on the shores of Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
A hearing aid and a 2003 cochlear implant meanwhile made a successful career in audiology possible until March 2020.
Davis-Roesler was considering her options in an uncertain time when a serendipitous post about deaf education on a Facebook feed tapped into an ingrained sense of being.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been passionate about advocacy,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檝e found that people don鈥檛 know what they don鈥檛 know and I never had a problem telling someone how to communicate with me. If someone isn鈥檛 willing to change a little to facilitate a conversation [by not covering their mouth or not facing her directly] then we won鈥檛 have a relationship.鈥�
The prospect of improving communication between the hearing public and non-hearing individuals was a big reason a degree in deaf education appealed to Davis-Roesler.
But it paled next to an early diagnosis of her now ten-year-old daughter鈥檚 hearing impairment.
Davis-Roesler began TC classes remotely before moving to White Plains for a semester of access to on-campus learning.
鈥淭he first two weeks were great,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淣o husband! No kids!鈥�
By week three, Davis-Roesler, suffice it to say, was counting the days until the end of the semester.
As she completed her studies in Plattsburgh, an opening with the (EDHI) program caught Davis-Roesler鈥檚 attention.
The job was filled by the time she submitted an application.
But clarity emerged about how and where to leverage the knowledge gained in the pursuit of a fourth graduate degree:
鈥淚 want to use my personal experience as a deaf person, my professional experience as an audiologist and my parental experience as the mother of a hard of hearing child to educate the masses.鈥�
Be it with an educational program, a non-profit advocate or a medical facility, the overarching objective is to provide parents of the hearing impaired with a blueprint so that their children might succeed as she has.
Though Davis-Roesler missed this recent opportunity to work for a state program that advocates for early identification of hearing issues, her interest prompted an invitation to serve on the EDHI advisory board.
鈥淚t鈥檚 never too late to reinvent yourself if someone has the courage to believe,鈥� says Davis-Roesler. 鈥淚 won鈥檛 let anyone say 鈥榥o鈥� to me 鈥� I don鈥檛 know that word.鈥�
In fact, she laughs, 鈥淚鈥檓 deaf to it.鈥�