A Conversation with Melissa Chaikof!

The Listening Brain

Melissa Chaikof is a cofounder and Chair of Usher 1F Collaborative, a nonprofit foundation whose mission is to find a treatment to save or restore the vision of those with Usher syndrome type 1F. Usher syndrome is the leading cause of inherited deaf-blindness. With two daughters affected by Usher 1F, the cause is a very personal one to her, and she is determined to save her daughters’ vision. Prior to founding Usher 1F Collaborative, she worked for 14 years as Donor Research Analyst for Nonprofit Leadership (NPL), LLC. Prior to her work at NPL, Melissa was a contributing author on the topic of “English Language Acquisition of Children with Cochlear Implants” for the book written by Tom Bertling entitled Communicating with Deaf Children. She also worked as Outreach Coordinator for the Auditory-Verbal Center of Atlanta and as a systems analyst at the MITRE Corporation. She is currently a state champion for the American Cochlear Implant Alliance, past board member of the Gift of Hearing Foundation, Cochlear Implant Association, Inc. (CIAI), the Auditory-Verbal Center of Atlanta, and served as contributor and associate editor for Contact, the publication of CIAI, for six years. Melissa holds an M.S. in Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in applied math. She lives in Boston and has three adult children, two with Usher Syndrome type 1F.

To learn more about Usher 1F Collaborative and their work and progress toward a cure or to help, please visit https://www.usher1f.org.

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