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Hannah Hawkins
Hannah Hawkins
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Serves Jordan Early Intervention
Hanna Hawkins is Deaf/HH parent advisor with a deep commitment to supporting families of children with disabilities. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Special Education and a Master's degree in Early Childhood Deaf Education. Her passion for this work began in her earliest experiences with Deaf plus individuals, where she fell in love with exploring all of the unique ways little ones communicate. Now, she has the privilege of working in the Parent Infant Program, empowering parents and helping them nurture their child's potential in every way possible. She believes it is an honor to walk alongside families, celebrate milestones, and discover together the many ways their children can thrive.
Outside of work, she is a proud mom of two who loves spending time with family and friends. She enjoys traveling and hopes to give her children opportunities to experience new places, immerse themselves in different cultures, and explore the world around them.
Merideth Foster
Merideth Foster
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Serves DDI Vantage Early Intervention
Merideth is deaf and hard of hearing. She wasn't diagnosed with hearing loss till she was six years old. Since she was diagnosed at a young age and not at birth, this motivated her to help children who are DHH from birth to age five. She has a masters degree in Deaf Education, birth through five, from Utah State University. She enjoys working with families in their homes and encourages any language modality: ASL (American Sign Language), LSL (Listening Spoken Language), gestures or all languages used in the home. She wants to empower parents and children in their journey of learning language.
For fun, she enjoys traveling with her husband and two dogs. She loves to watch documentaries and movies. Hanging out with her nieces and nephews.
Rebecca Olsen
Rebecca Olsen
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Serves DDI Vantage Early Intervention
Rebecca Olsen has lived most of her life here in the beautiful state of Utah. As a child she couldn’t wait to go to Utah State University and later fulfilled her dreams earning a Bachelor degree in Family Consumer and Human Development, her emphasis in Child Development, and a minor in American sign language. Her love of both fields drove her too soon after receive her Master degree in Deaf Education through Utah State’s bilingual bicultural program. Rebecca’s educational background has solidified her passion for helping each child and family find the right services, resources, and skills to support individual development especially in regards to language.
Outside of work Rebecca is an avid reader, hiker, and animal lover. Growing up on a small hobby farm consisting mainly of cats, sheep, donkeys, dogs, and chickens has left her with a love for anything that moves.
Stephanie Morgan
Stephanie Morgan
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Director
Stephanie Morgan has 15 years of experience in the deaf education field. Her Bachelor is in Special Education with an emphasis for the Deaf and Masters in Educational Leadership & Policy. Stephanie has experience working in early childhood education, elementary, and secondary. She has worked with deaf students in the district as well as the deaf school. She has experience with ASL/English and LSL methodologies. Stephanie is deaf herself and uses all the tools- signing, listening with her cochlear implant, and speaking. She is a proud mama of 3 children and loves cooking, CrossFit, and new adventures.
Jamie Warengo-Threet
Jamie Warengo-Threet
Deaf Mentor Supervisor
Jamie is a Southern girl born in the state of Texas. She has spent much of her childhood and adulthood living in Texas for ten years, Tennessee for twelve years and Georgia for five years.
Jamie is the only deaf individual in her family. Growing up in a family where she was the only one who signed until her parents slowly started learning Signed Exact English (SEE). Jamie did not start learning American Sign Language (ASL) until she entered Middle school. Due to living in different states, it gave Jamie a lot of wonderful experiences with different educational placements and language modalities which included self-contained classroom, mainstream with an interpreter, and a bilingual school. When she graduated from the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville, she attended Walters State Community College in Tennessee.
Jamie’s experiences have made a huge impact and helped her realize there are other families that need a Deaf role model to help them learn American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with their Deaf and/or Hard of Hearing child. This became Jamie’s huge passion where she decided her heart was to work for the Deaf Mentor program.
In 2012, Jamie moved to Utah to be with the love of her life, Jack! Jamie started working as a Deaf Mentor for the Parent Infant Program at Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in January 2013. In 2014, she became the Supervisor for the Deaf Mentor program.
Jamie and her husband Jack, married in 2014. They both have three 80lbs.+ dogs. During her free time, she enjoys the outdoors; camping, rock climbing, hiking; yoga; traveling; cooking southern food and spending time with her family.
Rachel was born and raised nearby Chicago, Illinois and is the 5th child, the youngest in her family. In 2016, she moved to Utah and attended Utah Valley University for higher education.
In Rachel’s experience with K-12 education, she experienced through mainstream schools for the majority of her youth. Through mainstream schools, she had the opportunity to participate in a self-contained classroom and access with an interpreter in a hearing based classroom.
During her childhood, Rachel was very active and participated in several activities; Girl Scout, church, Deaf Performance Arts, Academic Bowl and dance. She also participated in sports such as cheerleading, and volleyball.
Her primary language was SEE, which expanded to Signing Exact English. However, she learned and picked up ASL (American Sign Language) through a non-profit program called International Center on Deafness and Arts (Theatre and Dance) at the age of 13. Through this program, she was able to gain new friends from various mainstream education backgrounds and role models. Rachel learned through her role models that Deafness doesn’t prevent her from doing anything she wants to do.
The purpose of becoming a Deaf Mentor is because of the lack of Deaf mentor that did not exist in Rachel’s state and had greatly impacted her. She never heard the role of a Deaf Mentor until her move to Utah. Rachel had many questions that could have benefited Deaf children to receive access to language at such a young age. She decided to become Deaf Mentor to assist the family after researching about the program.
Ashlee Gillis
Ashlee Gillis
Deaf Mentor
Ashlee Gillis was born and raised in Central Illinois. She is an only child and was the only Deaf person in her family from her childhood years. Ashlee married her husband, Shawn, who is also Deaf, in 2015. They completed their family with three daughters. The older two daughters are hearing and the youngest daughter is hard of hearing bilaterally. They have two family dachshund dogs; Max and Cookie. As a family, they enjoy shopping, going on evening walks, watching movies and reading books.
Ashlee became Deaf at birth and
she did not get a hearing screening
until she was three years old because newborn hearing screenings were not required back then. She became a naive signer in American Sign Language from her toddler years. Growing up, Ashlee attended a mainstream school with a Special Education program and then graduated from high school in 2009. She moved to Rochester, New York to attend Rochester Institute of Technology. Ashlee graduated with an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts in 2011 and a Bachelor’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies tracking Deaf Culture, psychology and sociology in 2014. Ashlee plans to study at Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. to obtain a Master’s degree in Early Intervention Studies by Fall of 2026. Although she recently joined the PIP program for Salt Lake County in Utah in late 2022; she had previous experience as a Deaf Mentor for the Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education in Indianapolis, Indiana for three years from 2019-2022.
Andrea Ploehn
Andrea Ploehn
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Serves DDI Vantage Early Intervention
Andrea received her Associate/Bachelor Degree in Elementary Education and Speech Communications from Ricks College/Boise State/Idaho State. She has worked with young kids for all of her adult life. She helped run the YMCA preschool and Kindergarten program in Boise before moving back to Utah. During this time Andrea also ran a baby sign language online company for 8 years where she helped families learn ASL to further their family’s communication and language abilities. She’s always had a passion for helping those with disabilities, which started when her youngest sister was born severely handicapped. She recalls having service members from Early Intervention, etc… coming to her home and supporting their family during this overwhelming time. She’s excited to be a support and resource for families going through similar situations.
Andrea owns her own tumbling/gymnastics business “Thrive Tumbling” which she has done for the past 15 years, along with being an assistant Drill Team Coach to the Stansbury Stallions. She’s currently looking forward to transitioning to being a full time PIP Advisor, which has always been her dream job. She has 5 kids and loves spending all her free time with her family playing games, hiking, and camping.
Katelyn Empey
Katelyn Empey
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Serves Jordan Early Intervention
Katelyn received her undergraduate degree in Communication Disorders from Brigham Young University and her graduate degree from Utah State University with an emphasis in Deaf Education/Listening and Spoken Language in 2019. She has worked in Early Intervention for over two years. Katelyn spent two years at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind as a preschool teacher in a LSL classroom as well as a birth to three parent advisor. Currently, she works as a birth-to-three parent advisor at USDB and is also working towards her Listening and Spoken Language Specialist certification.
She loves her job and is so happy she found this field a few years ago. She didn’t know much about it until she started her graduate program at USU. She has found such fulfillment at being able to help children who are deaf and hard of hearing reach their potential. Language is so important and is the gateway to finding success in life and building relationships with others. In graduate school she learned about early intervention and being a parent coach and advisor. She loved being able to empower parents and help them to become successful teachers and advocates for their children. She believes that children can succeed and become anything they want to be and she loves being able to be a support for the parents through their journey and help their children reach their potential for years to come.
She was born and raised in Eastern Washington. She grew up on a farm and she loves to continue to visit her family back home and enjoy the clear air and small, no stop light, towns. She loves to take pictures and do graphic design on the side. This last year she met and married her husband. They now live here in Utah with their dog, Juno. Their favorite wedding gift was an adventure fund piggy bank, so they always have a vacation or traveling adventure to plan for.
Early Childhood Specialist for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Serves Jordan Early Intervention
Kids on the Move Early Intervention and Jordan Early Intervention
Emilee Segura was born in Utah, alongside her hearing twin brother. At the hospital, her parents found out she did not pass her newborn infant hearing screening. Later they found out she has a bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss. Her parents received deaf mentor services and they learned ASL. Emilee received a cochlear implant when she was 18 months old. She attended auditory verbal therapy where she learned how to hear with her cochlear implant and how to talk. She grew up in a home where ASL and spoken English were the main languages. She is the only person in her immediate family who is deaf.
Emilee attended USDB for preschool through first grade. From then on, she went mainstream and attended local public schools. Emilee received a Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorders and a Master of Education in Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Emilee started working as a Deaf Mentor for the Parent Infant Program (PIP) at Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in May 2021. She is currently an early intervention specialist for the PIP program. Emilee has a huge passion for helping deaf and hard of hearing children succeed! As a deaf person, Emilee has personal experience with the importance of early intervention. She is incredibly grateful for PIP and the deaf mentors that helped her family when she was younger and now has come full circle to help other families with deaf and hard of hearing kids.
Emilee also shares more about her life as a deaf person on social media. She shares stories, experiences, frustrations, tips, and answers questions. You can follow her on Instagram at @emilee_segura, on TikTok @emileesegura, on Facebook at Emilee Segura, and on YouTube @Emileesegura
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