TDI Extends Special Appreciation to 24 Companies/Trade Groups for Sponsorship of the Party
TDI hosted its annual Holiday Party in where key consumers and advocates, representatives from several industries, and officials of the federal government attended to celebrate the holidays.
We were honored with the presence of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. TDI Executive Director Claude Stout gave tribute for Wheeler’s highly productive three-year stint at the Commission, and wished him well when he leaves the agency on January 20. Stout complimented Commissioner Clyburn for her commitment to the needs and issues of the average person on the street and that whenever she takes a vote on any topic at the Commission, she makes sure they get a fair deal from any Commission’s formal action.
Other representatives from the halls of federal government, such as officials from Federal Communications Commission, Henning Schulzrinne, Chief Technologist, Office of Strategic Planning, Karen Peltz-Strauss, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) Deputy Chief – Policy, Suzy Rosen Singleton – Chief, Disability Rights Office, CGB, Eliot Greenwald – Deputy Chief, DRO, and Rosaline Crawford and Michael Scott – Attorney Advisors, DRO, CGB joined the festivities. Also from the US Department of Labor, was Claudia Gordon, Chief of Staff, Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
Among the industry representatives outside of relay services, such as AT&T official – Linda Vandeloop, CBS Vice President of Captioning and Video Description Mark Turits, NextNAV official – Bruce Cox, Samsung official Lolita Forbes, CTIA representatives Bryanna Evans and Laura Berrocal, Margaret Tobey with NBCUniversal, Darlene Parker with National Captioning Institute, and an official with Charter Communications – Alex Hoehn- Saric showed up to the event and enjoyed their time there.
Those attending from the relay services industry were: Convo Relay General Counsel Jeff Rosen, Purple Communications officials – Paul Singleton, and Mike Strecker, Sprint Relay representatives Andrew Brenneman and Angela Officer, Sorenson Communications Regulatory Affairs Director Michael Maddix, Corporate Principal Counsel and Lance Pickett, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, ZVRS representative Corey Burton, and Hamilton Relay representative John Fechter also made their presence felt at the event while enjoying their time there.
Representatives from disability access advocacy organizations, trade groups, and academia also attended. We appreciated very much the support we had with two TDI Board members attending – Alexa Schriempf and Matt Myrick. Among those were Michael Warnecke with Entertainment Software Association, Neil McDevitt, Executive Director, Deaf and Hearing Communication Centre, Swarthmore, PA, Neal Tucker with Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Barbara Raimonda with Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, Deaf Seniors of America representative to DHHCAN Tom Dowling, National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Chief Executive Officer Howard Rosenblum, Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) officials – Chris Soukup, Brandi Rarus, Pat Myers, David Bahar, Ty Giordano, Nikki Soukup and Shane Feldman, Gallaudet University President Roberta Cordano, former President of Gallaudet University Dr. I. King Jordan, three officials from Gallaudet’s Technology Access Program – Dr. Christian Vogler, Norman Williams, and Linda Kozma-Spytek, and Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) Director of Public Policy Lise Hamlin.
Claude Stout, Executive Director, TDI said, “We had a wonderful holiday party last Thursday night in downtown Washington, D.C. We had over 130 people at the party. Everyone had a great time meeting some of the foremost key leaders and advocates from the deaf and hard of hearing community. Last, but not least, we extend our deepest thanks to the many companies and nonprofit groups for their sponsorships for the Holiday Party. It was a great celebration for year 2016 in which we experienced constructive and meaningful collaboration and partnership between national consumer groups, government, and industry. The kind of access we enjoy today would not be possible without the synergy brought forth from the total team effort by these three crucial stakeholder entities. TDI says again to all, many thanks!”
Special Thanks to the 24 Sponsors! Please view their company logos below.