Tuesday, September 30th; 8:30am - 10:00am
Opening Session - Welcome & Opening Remarks
Keynote Speaker - Sue Thomas
Staying In the Race
Captivating her audiences and leaving them speechless is the trademark of Sue Thomas. Profoundly deaf since the age of 18 months, Sue spent years with therapists to develop her voice and in the process became an expert lip-reader in order to communicate with the hearing world around her. Inspired by Sue's unique job at the FBI headquarters in Washington DC, doing undercover surveillance by lip-reading, in 2002 her speaking platform went international with the release of the TV series, SUE THOMAS: FBEYE.
Today her dynamic spirit cannot be contained in her silent world and reaches out to break the Sound Barrier with widely diversified audiences worldwide. Her humor is contagious and her stories are compelling. When she is not traveling and speaking, Sue Thomas lives in the quiet hills of Vermont with her Special Skills/Hearing Dog, Katie. Besides her best-selling autobiography, "Silent Night", she is working on several other writing projects, and is in the development stages of EPEC, a service dog training facility, as well as a silent retreat, 'A Place of Streams. Today, besides her deafness, she also walks with Multiple Sclerosis. When asked what her greatest accomplishment has been, she answers, "Simply staying in the race."