THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Shazia Siddiqi, MD, MPH
Immediate Past President
Dr. Siddiqi is a Deaf Staff Scientist at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY. Dr. Siddiqi earned a Bachelor’s in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley, a Master’s in Public Health from Dartmouth College, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine.
She has done research in breast cancer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, worked as a community health educator/outreach specialist in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program at Greater Los Angeles Agency of Deafness, and taught Medical Terminology at Gallaudet University. Before coming to Rochester, Dr. Siddiqi was the Executive Director of DAWN (formerly known as Deaf Abused Women's Network) which provided advocacy services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking in the greater metropolitan area of Washington, DC.
Dr. Siddiqi has long worked closely with historically excluded populations, exploring how social determinants affect health outcomes aiming at Deaf health equity, disability justice, and reproductive justice. Her goals are to ensure that Deaf people who have historically been excluded from research data are now forefront and visible in research and apply these research findings to effect policy change at local, state, national, and international levels.
Her professional interests include global Deaf health, health disparities, preventive medicine, gender-based violence, trauma-informed care, and maternal and child health. Dr. Siddiqi enjoys working with historically excluded populations to gain opportunities and access to further their scientific and health career goals as well as learn more about their own intersectionalities that frame their lived experiences.
Amanda David, CI/CT, BEI III&Medical, CoreCHI
Amanda is a native of southwest Louisiana and a RID certified interpreter. After graduating from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, she completed coursework in the Interpreter Training Programs at Collin County Community College and Houston Community College, both in Texas. She holds a Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity from St. Catherine University.
Amanda specializes in conference interpreting, scientific/technical interpreting, and interpreting for d/Deaf professionals in healthcare settings. She is a staff interpreter at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, and lives between Austin, TX, and Louisiana.
Nicole Fleming, BSN, RN
Nicole is a registered nurse residing in Rochester NY. She was raised in Massachusetts before moving to Rochester for college at the University of Rochester where she studied American Sign Language and Biology. She then completed an accelerated second-degree program at University of Rochester to earn her BSN and become a registered nurse. She is now back in school at the University of Rochester working towards her Master’s as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.
Nicole’s career focuses on pediatrics. She has worked in a variety of settings including inpatient, emergency, and outpatient pediatrics. She enjoys incorporating healthy lifestyle education with medicine to help patients achieve their best health outcomes. She also works to educate fellow healthcare providers and interpreters on Deaf culture, child development, and social determinants of health. She enjoys providing both formal and informal mentorship to aspiring Deaf/Hard of Hearing nurses.
Nicole became Deaf during college and now uses a combination of ASL, cochlear implants, and her wonderful service dog, Freya, to ensure complete access to the world around her. She loves experiencing everything life has to offer, particularly outdoorsy activities such as rock climbing, running, and camping. She enjoys experimenting in the kitchen on rainy days.
This is Nicole’s first term on the AMPHL board of directors and she is excited to help this fantastic organization grow.
Tyler Pugeda
Cheryl Miller, Ed.D., MSN, NPD- BC, CHSE, CNE
Dr. Miller has a Doctoral Degree with Specialization in Educational Technology and Leadership along with a Master’s in Nursing Education. She is certified in Simulation, Nursing Professional Development, and Nursing Education. Her passions are improving patient outcomes, satisfaction, and providing truly experiential learning opportunities to Interprofessional teams through simulation and learning technology.
Working alongside her peers in the Peri-Op suite, she is the Nursing Professional Development Specialist at South Sacramento Kaiser Permanente. She is hearing impaired, reads lips, and wears bilateral behind the ear hearing aids. She was not found to be hearing impaired until the age of 9. She went on to achieve her BSN in Nursing from the State University of New York (1992). MSN (2003) and Ed.D. (2021) from the University of Phoenix. She identifies as a Phoenix in having to reinvest in her skills several times in Nursing from staff RN, to educator, to professor during her time in Nursing and Nursing Education, never backing down from the challenge of being hearing impaired but reinventing ways around it.
Carolyn Stern, MD
Carolyn R. Stern, MD is a Board-Certified Family Physician. As the first female Deaf Family Physician in the United States, and as the first Deaf Physician to work at URMC, she currently works at UR Medicine Urgent Care. She also serves as the Medical Director and School Physician at Rochester School for the Deaf.
She has cared for and consulted with thousands of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) patients and the extended D/HH community. She presents extensively in the D/HH, interpreter, medical, and general community both nationally and internationally, as a role model, advocate, mentor and educator.
At URMC, she is honored to serve on the Deaf Professional Advisory Committee (DPAC) under the University’s Office of Disability Resources, the Deaf Patient and Family Advisory Committee (DPFAC) under the Patient Care Experience office, and on the Clinical Cultural Awareness committee. She also serves on the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Disability Advisory Group, the New York Academy of Family Physicians’ (NYAFP) DEI Commission, and the Monroe County Medical Society’s (MCMS) Equity and Diversity Committee.
She has created curriculum (more than 100 hours of coursework) and taught numerous, highly successful Medical Interpreting courses and workshops in Washington State, Gallaudet University (as Adjunct Professor), and Rochester, NY. She has taught “Human Body Systems for Professional Interpreters” at RIT/NTID, and has a website, www.deafdoc.org, a partnership developed to improve health literacy for the D/HH community.
She has served as a consultant to Federal, State and local organizations, including: Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), The Joint Commission, National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)/Greater Los Angeles Association of the Deaf (GLAD) (Consultant and talent for a Breast Cancer DVD for Deaf women: “Signs of Awareness: A Visual Guide to Breast Cancer for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Women”), National Association of the Deaf, and the Rochester Institute of Technology/ National Technical Institute for the Deaf (RIT/NTID).
She has organized a week-long DeafDOC.org-Japanese Delegation (National Technical University of Technology (NTUT)) Symposium in Rochester on “The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Health Care Professional: Achieving Success.” A group of Japanese Educational and Medical Professors, interpreters, as well as a Deaf medical student and Deaf clinical engineer came to Rochester to learn about improving health care career opportunities for D/HH students in Japan.
Internationally, she has served as a team physician at the Deaf Olympics in Italy, presented in China at the Tianjin University of Technology/Pen International: All-China Higher Special Education Conference on "Healthcare and the Deaf Postsecondary Student: Observations and Educational Impact." In Japan, she testified before the Diet’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, advocating for the rights of the Japanese Deaf, to become licensed health care professionals.
She and her husband, Mr. Alan Spanjer, live in Rochester, NY with their 3 children.
