Board Members

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Board Members

Nancy Peterson

Nancy Peterson is Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for AlliedBarton Security Services, a national security guard firm with more than 53,000 employees.  She has extensive experience in all aspects of transactional law with specific expertise in the negotiation of commercial agreements, compliance management and general corporate matters. 

Ms. Peterson previously served as General Counsel for a nationwide candy manufacturer and licensing company and as Assistant General Counsel for ARAMARK Corporation. Before commencing her work as an in-house lawyer, Ms. Peterson was an associate in the real estate department in one of Philadelphia’s largest law firms. 

Ms. Peterson received her law degree from Villanova University where upon graduation she received the Herman Schwartz Award (presented annually to the person in the graduating class who, in the opinions of the faculty, has contributed the most to the achievement of equality of opportunity and treatment for women). Ms. Peterson received her bachelor’s degree in History from Colorado College. In addition to her appointment to the HLAA Board of Trustees, Ms. Peterson has served on the Boards of The Please Touch Children’s Museum and Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech. She is also a member of The Forum of Executive Women and chairs its Forum Award Committee. Ms. Peterson has bilateral hearing aids, as do her two children and other family members. 

Ms. Peterson was nominated to the HLAA Board of Trustees in 2012.

James C. Saunders, Ph.D.

Dr. Saunders is Professor of Research Otolaryngology, Physiology and Neuroscience at the Perlman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.  He received his B.A. in Psychology from Ohio Wesleyan University; an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Connecticut College; and  Ph.D. in Sensory Psychology from Princeton University in 1968.  He has held appointments at Monash University, Australia, and the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis.  In 1973 he joined the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Human Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and served as Director of Auditory Research until 2007. He serves on the Editorial Board of Hearing Research, and is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the National Organization for Hearing Research and the Council of Scientific Trustees of the Hearing Health Foundation (formerly the Deafness Research Foundation).

Dr. Saunders has published extensively on topics in hearing research that range in scope from the mechanics of middle ear function, the consequences of exposure to intense sound, the structural organization and micro-mechanics of hair cell stereocilia, and most recently the properties of neural coding in the peripheral and central auditory pathways. Recognition of his research efforts includes the Claude Pepper for research excellence from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). 

 Dr. Saunders is currently a Professor Emeritus and lives outside Philadelphia. He was appointed to the HLAA Board of Trustees in November 2011.

Nancy Lelewer Sonnabend

Nancy Lelewer Sonnabend first became acquainted with SHHH (now HLAA) through her parents as her mother was profoundly hard of hearing and served on the national board of trustees for nine years. This brought Nancy in contact with founder Rocky Stone and his wife Ahme, and she also attended several of the early conferences. Later Nancy became deaf in her left ear and profoundly hard of hearing in her right ear. 

Nancy graduated Sarah Lawrence College in 1957 and was a member of the Smith College exchange program in Madrid from 1955-1956. Her diverse background includes inventor; researcher at MIT and Harvard Medical School; founding director of Permobil of Americal, (today renamed USA Permobil) the world’s leading computerized wheelchair company; lecturer; writer and specialty in dyslexia and other learning differences. She currently has two books on the market: SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT: One family’s struggle with learning disabilities and THE LELEWER LEGACY, Traditions of a Loving Family. Nancy has served on several boards and chaired two of them. 

Nancy lives in Boston, MA, has four grown children and eight grandchildren. She was appointed to the HLAA Board of Trustees in June 2010. 

Committees:  Ms. Sonnabend serves on the Fund Raising Committee.

Mark Spradley

Mark Spradley is managing director of Mazao Capital LLC, a private equity firm.  Mr. Spradley is currently in charge of developing new business opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa for Mazao Capital and its portfolio companies. His responsibilities include ensuring that portfolio companies achieve annual cost savings, revenue generation and cash acceleration goals.

Before joining Mazao Capital, Mr. Spradley was a vice president with UBS Financial Services. At UBS, he advised corporations, non-profits and ultra-high net worth individuals on asset allocation and security selection.  He previously served as a financial advisor with Legg Mason.

Mr. Spradley holds a MBA awarded to him by the University of London and a MBA from the TRIUM Program, which was jointly issued by NYU Stern School of Business, London School of Economics and H.E.C School of Management, Paris. Mr. Spradley received a M.A. from American University and he earned his B.S degree from Howard University.

In January 2012, Mr. Spradley began using the SoundBite Prosthetic Hearing Device, a non-surgical bone conduction prosthetic device that transmits sound via the teeth for the treatment of single sided deafness and conductive hearing loss.

Mr. Spradley brings to the HLAA Board of Trustees experience and expertise in finance, strategic planning, investments and development. He was elected to the HLAA Board of Trustees in March of 2012.

Alyssa Terk, M.D.

Dr. Alyssa Terk specializes in treating infants, children and adolescents with medical and surgical diseases of the ear, nose, and throat. She has particular interest in airway disorders, otitis media, hearing loss, ear infections, voice disorders, obstructive sleep apnea, tonsillitis and sinus diseases.

Dr. Terk received her medical degree from New York University School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut where she also served as Chief Resident. Dr. Terk was then an attending otolaryngologist at Pediatric Otolaryngology, LLC.

Dr. Terk was a fellow in Pediatric Otolaryngology at A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware and most recently joined the Section of Otolaryngology at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. She is board-certified in Otolaryngology and is an active member of the America Academy of Otolaryngology.

She has hereditary progressive sensorineural hearing loss and has worn bilateral hearing aids since age 18 and now has bilateral cochlear implants (the first in 2009, the second in 2011).

Dr. Terk was appointed to the HLAA Board of Trustees in November 2011.

Margaret Wallhagen, Ph.D.

Dr. Wallhagen is a Professor of Gerontological Nursing and a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner in the School of Nursing, University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She received her initial nursing degree from St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing in New York, her Baccalaureate and Master’s degrees from UCSF, and her doctoral degree in nursing from the University of Washington in Seattle. Since joining the faculty at UCSF in 1988, she has taught gerontological nursing at both the masters and doctoral level, and works as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner. 

Dr. Wallhagen has conducted a number of research projects in gerontology and chronic care management. Her research and publications focus on studies of: the experience of control in caregivers and in persons with diabetes; successful aging for persons with chronic conditions; self care and symptom management; cross cultural interventions to support family caregivers with dementia; and the impact of hearing impairment on older adults. She recently completed a four year longitudinal study of the experience of hearing impairment in older adults and their partners. In January 2006, Dr. Wallhagen became the Director of the UCSF/John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence as it entered its second five years of funding. 

Dr. Wallhagen was appointed to the HLAA Board of Trustees in June 2010. 

Committees:  Dr. Wallhagen serves on the Finance Committee. 

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