On Friday, February 28th Candi Bown was given the prestigious School Clinician of the Year Award for the Utah Speech-Language Hearing Association. Candi has served as the Nebo School District audiologist for over 30 years. This award is so deserved! She has served hundred of Nebo students and has consistently changed lives for the better. Nebo School District is lucky to have Candi in our ranks. Congratulations Candi!
Read below to see how her colleagues feel about her:
Candi is a highly dedicated and proactive educational audiologist. She prioritizes spending time in schools, ensuring she visits at least once a week to check on students. Her commitment to maintaining the functionality of students' hearing devices ensures they have optimal access to classroom instruction. Candi also fosters an inclusive learning environment by conducting classroom presentations on hearing aids, helping students embrace their assistive devices as empowering "superpowers." Her approachable demeanor and genuine care have earned the admiration of students, who often greet her with enthusiasm. Recognizing the financial burden of hearing aids, Candi has guided numerous families through the process of securing grants and worked with various foundations to provide these essential devices. In response to the challenges posed by COVID-19, she successfully obtained funding for remote microphones, allowing students to hear their teachers more clearly despite mask requirements. Her unwavering commitment to ensuring that students with hearing loss and auditory processing difficulties receive equitable access to education has made her an invaluable asset to the district. Colleagues feel fortunate to work alongside such a dedicated and compassionate professional. - Katrina Davenport, Nebo School District Hearing Specialist
Dr. Bown received her bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders followed by a master’s degree in audiology from Utah State University in 1988. She later received her doctorate degree in audiology from AT Still University of Health Sciences in 2005. She is a board-certified member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and was on the USHA board for almost 20 years. She has worked as the full-time educational audiologist for Nebo School District for the past 35 years and feels that she has the best job in the world.” - Brittany Bown, AuD, CCC-A, PASC, Hearing and Balance Institute of Utah and Candi’s daughter
Dr. Candace (Candi) Bown, AuD has served as Nebo School District’s audiologist for 35 years during a period of tremendous growth. Candi has changed the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. I have many images in mind of worried parents’ burdens lifted, of students suddenly hearing clearly, and of IEP teams so relieved that Candi has come to the rescue. She has gone above and beyond serving on hundreds of IEP teams helping students be properly aided or fitted with cochlear implants and having the classroom accommodations they need to be successful. She has also partnered with and mentored local audiologists and donated thousands of hours of professional service statewide on various committees, including on the USHA board for many years. Each year in hundreds of classes at 25 preschools, 30 elementaries, 15 secondary schools, and 10 special sites across the district, Candi does hundreds of hearing evaluations, many hundreds of hearing screenings, and has matched too many students to count with hearing aids, cochlear implants, medical providers, and other needed equipment either for free or at very reduced cost to their families. She is the one who can get consistent, reliable responses from the wiggliest, tantruming preschooler to the most cognitively-impaired older student and everyone in between. She has spent decades educating students, their families, SLPs, teachers, and school teams on everything related to audiology, hearing loss, auditory processing disorder, and many related topics such as the proper use and care of equipment, and the importance of evaluations and regular appointments. She has also donated much of her own personal time to do hearing evaluations for employees’ family members, friends, and many others in the community. She once checked a principal’s hearing when his wife wasn’t positive if he wasn’t listening to, or couldn’t hear, her honey-do requests. :) We helped sixth graders act out all the parts of a life-size hearing system together, from outer ear to cochlea, to help them understand how to take care of their hearing as they started wearing ipods, mowing lawns, and going to concerts. She is absolutely a miracle worker amongst us. Candi is energetic, cheerful, empathetic, and has been absolutely delightful to work with. She happened to be the very first person I met in Nebo School District, at a drinking fountain in the District Office over twenty years ago, and I loved her immediately. I’ve learned so much from her over the decades, and have been so very grateful for her in my current role. She is indispensable to us, and I don’t know what we’d do without her. Candi is so young at heart and full of energy, we don’t think 35 more years is too much to ask. - Lorie Reese, M.S., CCC-SLP, Nebo School District Specialist, Speech-Language Pathology
Candi has always been amazing to work with! I have 2 daughters who are hard of hearing and she always goes above and beyond making sure they have what they need, educating their teachers on their 504 accommodations, making sure we are aware of the various programs out there to help deaf and hard of hearing students. She was especially helpful during COVID when we ran into teachers not wanting to wear face shields instead of a mask so they can have the visual feedback that is so important. She's always been willing to answer my many questions and tries to save us money when insurance doesn't pay for ear mold or things like that. She is amazing! Working with her professionally, she is always fitting in our preschool students last- minute in her already packed schedule when we can't get an OAE for one reason or another which saves parents another trip and saves us time and having to reschedule them. - Shelly LeBaron, Nebo School District SLP Mentor and parent of hard of hearing students
Candi is an amazing lady and very much deserves to be honored! I have known Candi for almost 30 years, and used to work right with her and near her, and what a treasured blessing those years are! I witnessed first-hand the individual and genuine care she has for others, and saw the extent to which she will go to get the services, devices, and support children and parents need. Candi stays highly educated, works extremely hard, and has no boundaries on her care and concern for others. She genuinely wants everyone to succeed. I have also witnessed this level of care and concern on a very personal level. She has periodically given such tender and personal care to my dad, to the point it evokes deep emotion for me and my siblings. She has gone above and beyond to help him be successful with hearing aids, even in the smallest needs. Their visits were always a bright spot in my parents’ day. My dad still regularly talks about how kind and helpful she has been, and how grateful he is for her. She has given him hope time and time again. It is such a beautiful thing. Her wonderful sense of energy, optimism and confidence welcomes her presence any time! Not to mention the humor, practical jokes, and laughter she brings! She is so much fun, and I consider it a great blessing to know her and call her friend. - Janelle Bond, Nebo School District Special Education Secretary
As a Preschool Teacher, my first experience was watching how great Candi was when we needed help with a tricky hearing screen. She was flexible with parents' crazy schedules, and her kind demeanor always put families at ease. When needed, Candi is a wealth of knowledge at our IEP meetings and is a great resource for families and teachers. - Britney Parmenter, Nebo School District Preschool Teacher
Candi has been so lovely to work with. This year we had a student who had significant hearing loss in one ear. She came and did a presentation with her class and she's promptly answered questions we've had about the new hearing aids so we can provide support for this student. I always find anytime I have a question or concern she is quick to respond and lend her expertise and we greatly appreciate her! - Brooke Thomas, Nebo School District SLP
Candi is truly exceptional. She consistently demonstrates kindness and patience when working with students in the ACC classes during their hearing evaluations. Also, in my role conducting preschool testing at the Summit Center, I have witnessed her unwavering willingness to assist students at a moment’s notice. On one particular occasion, I had three consecutive students fail their hearing screenings. Without hesitation, Candi set aside her tasks to examine each student's ears and even placed them in the booth for further assessment, allowing me to proceed with testing. Her passion for audiology is evident in her dedication to supporting our hearing-impaired students, ensuring they receive the best possible education. We are fortunate to have her as part of our team. - Mari Gallagher, Nebo School District SLP
For the past two years since receiving my diagnosis of otosclerosis Candi has helped me understand my diagnosis, given audiology evaluations and adjusted my hearing aids. She's helped me through the emotional process of adjusting to hearing aids as well as helped me to catch hearing loss of up to 10 decibels within 4 months of a previous evaluation. She takes the time necessary to not only help her clients understand what is going on, but to also help them process and adjust. Candi is truly amazing, thorough and supportive! I am so grateful for her and all she has done and continues to do for me! - Sara Aguila, Nebo School District Preschool Teacher
Candi Bown has been an amazing employee and friend to so many. She has gone above and beyond and truly wants to help anyone and everyone to hear the best they possibly can. She lights up the room when she comes in with her big smile and happy attitude! My father in law retired from the Nebo School District and had been helped by Candi with his hearing aids in the past. His hearing has been depleting recently and therefore needed some help with hearing aids and maybe a new device that might help. I was at work and asked Candi about what might help and she told us to have him come in and get tested again to see what was going on. She had him come in on her day off and she took time to help him understand what he needed to do. Candi was just so kind to him and helped him understand what he needed to do and explained it to myself, as well as my sister in law, so we would know what needed to happen. He really likes to be part of the lives of his family and to be able to hear what is going on is so helpful. We will forever be grateful to her for the help she gave my father in law, and our family! - DeDe DePew, Nebo School District Secretary
She has been amazing to work with and is always so kind and knowledgeable. My first two years, I observed her do an amazing job of coming in and testing our ACC students. She is so good at helping students to feel at ease even when they think having their hearing tested is going to be scary. There were a couple students where their teacher said, "I'm not really sure if they will tolerate having their hearing tested," and Candi said, "Leave it to me!" She helped turn something that seemed scary to them into a game and showed them it was painless. Candi has also done a wonderful job of being involved in helping us with getting our pre-K referral students tested. She has done a great job of answering my questions about auditory processing disorder and has attended two IEP meetings that I have been part of and she does a marvelous job of advocating for the students. - Mollie Bradley, Nebo School District SLP
Candi is an amazing Audiologist!! She is so knowledgeable, professional, passionate, personal, and compassionate! There are many experiences working with Candi from personal, attending IEP meetings, to her traveling around the district to do hearing screenings for students in special education classrooms (some of the classes I was providing speech services), searching for hearing aids that students have lost, and more. One personal experience was years ago when my grandma passed away. My grandma had gotten hearing aids a year or year and half before she passed away. My grandma hardly wore the new hearing aids, mostly because she couldn't get used to them. When she passed away my dad and his siblings didn't want to just throw away practically new hearing aids. My dad asked me to get in contact with Candi to see if a student could use the hearing aids. My dad and his siblings would like to donate the hearing aids if she could use them. Candi said that she would take the hearing aids. Candi and I set up an appointment for my dad and I to come to her office. When my dad and I walked into Candi's office she was her amazing self. She was very compassionate as my dad talked to her about his mom. Candi told my dad that since the hearing aids were behind the ear she would be able to change out the tubing and the ear dome/mold to fit a student. Candi was grateful for the donation. On the way home my dad told me that he was impressed with Candi and he was happy to be able to hear that my grandma's practically new hearing aids could still be used. Our district truly has been blessed to have Candi as our Audiologist!! She is the best! I appreciate ALL she does! - Shari Thorpe, Nebo School District SLT