Jean Johnson, HI LEND/UCEDD, Received the 2011 Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence

April 12, 2011

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Jean Johnson, Associate Director of the College of Education Center on Disability Studies, has devoted her life and career to the advocacy of education, health, support, and justice for the disability community. Recently, Johnson received the "Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence" at the 2011 National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This award honors the work of Dr. Antonia Brancia Maxon, a pioneer in EHDI programs for all newborns, infants, and young children.

"Wow, this was truly a precious moment in my lifetime," Johnson said. "I have been gifted during my career to have had the opportunity to work with many of the professional giants in the field of infant hearing. Antonia Maxon made me proud to be an audiologist - she made a difference in the world. Her leadership in newborn hearing screening helped make it a public health success story of the decade. I was humbly honored to accept this award."

Johnson's first degrees were in deaf education and audiology, and she later earned a master's and a doctorate degree in public health. She served the people of Guam as a clinician and chief public health officer, then the children of Hawai‘i as Project Coordinator of the Zero-to-Three Hawai‘i Project. She drafted legislation for mandating early intervention services for the state and drafted the first state mandate for newborn hearing screening.

Over the course of her career, Johnson, has been honored with numerous awards for her civic and professional contributions. Some of them include: Outstanding Services to the People of Guam, Outstanding Contributions to Early Intervention Services in the State of Hawai‘i and the Nation, Professional of the Year by the Special Parent Information Network (SPIN), and many others including humanitarian, advocacy, and leadership awards from a variety of organizations. Her publications have been recognized over the decades as well.

In 2009, Johnson was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court to serve on the Access to Justice Commission. She is also a member of the Learning Disabilities Association of Hawai‘i, Easter Seals Hawai‘i, the Developmental Disabilities Council, and the Special Education Advisory Council. In her current role at CDS, Johnson continues to obtain competitive federal grants for special projects and administers and monitors grant performance.

 

From the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Education release.