Why YOU Should Join the CHSC Board of Directors

Mission-Driven
As the nation's oldest hearing and speech center and the sole nonprofit organization in Northeast Ohio dedicated exclusively to serving individuals with special communication needs, CHSC stands at the forefront of advocacy. We provide speech-language, hearing, language interpreting, and Deaf services, championing equal access to information and communication. At CHSC, we honor and value every individual's language choices, striving towards a community where everyone can communicate effectively.

Creating Impact
Experience the profound satisfaction of witnessing your contributions directly impact the lives of thousands within our community. By joining the CHSC Board of Directors, you become an integral part of our mission and vision, driving positive change and transforming lives.

“I am grateful to donate my time and treasure to CHSC’s mission.  The outcomes speak for themselves.” - Monica Bowe

New Perspectives
CHSC’s board of directors is comprised of diverse individuals from all industries and career stages. By joining our board, you'll gain new insights into the life-changing work we do, engaging firsthand in strategic thinking and decision-making behind crucial actions. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to expand your network and forge meaningful connections with fellow board members.

Leadership Experience
Serving on CHSC’s board provides valuable leadership experience, especially if you volunteer to lead a committee. Volunteering your time as a board member gives you a chance to explore other skills or tasks that you may not have otherwise. CHSC has many opportunities to bring your diverse skillset to the table and make a difference. 

Inclusive Culture
We are committed to nurturing our culture to reflect the community we serve and to advancing justice, accessibility, inclusion, diversity, and equity (JAIDE) throughout all areas of organizational operations and governance.

"I’m grateful for the privilege of serving on the Board of an organization that makes a profound difference in the lives of so many people." - Phil Carino

Click here to see a list of our current Board members.

Ready to Make a Difference?

If you are ready to be a catalyst for positive change in our community, please let us know by clicking below.

Why Board Members Serve at Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center

Ask any member of our Board of Directors why they joined, and you will hear a different story every time. But listen closely, and the same thread runs through nearly all of them: someone they love needed us, or they saw firsthand what our staff makes possible, and they wanted to be part of it.

Many of our board members started as clients or family members of clients. A son who was a late talker. A daughter who lost hearing in one ear to a virus. A grandchild born with hearing loss. A spouse who needed hearing aids. A parent who could hear again, and lived to be 99 because of it. Board members have come to us after their own stroke recovery, after growing up with a mother who was hard of hearing, after learning to speak again following vocal cord surgery. They joined the board because the organization changed something in their own family, and they wanted to make sure it could do the same for someone else's.

Others came to us through volunteering. Our New Partners program has introduced attorneys, accountants, and finance professionals to CHSC long before they ever considered board service. They showed up to help with an event, fell in love with the mission, and asked how to do more.

Some arrived through professional and institutional ties. Case Western Reserve University has sent representatives to our board for decades, reflecting a partnership that goes back more than 75 years. Consultants who worked on our strategic plans, real estate advisors who helped us find our current home, and healthcare executives who recognized the scale of what we do have all found their way onto the board through the work itself.

What keeps them here is what they see once they arrive. Board members consistently point to two things: the tangible, life-changing impact on clients, and the caliber of the staff who deliver it. They describe a team that is deeply skilled, deeply committed, and doing work that quite literally does not exist anywhere else in Cleveland. Several members have served for twenty, thirty, even more than forty years, cycling through leadership roles because the mission never stops needing champions.

And many are simply drawn to Northeast Ohio's culture of giving. They see CHSC as a chance to invest their time and expertise in an organization that reflects the best of this community: practical, generous, and focused on making sure no one is left out of a conversation because of how they communicate.

Board service at CHSC is not a ceremonial appointment. It is a chance to apply your professional skills, whether in law, finance, marketing, healthcare, real estate, or communications, to an organization that helps close to 10,000 people a year find their voice, their hearing, and their place in the community. If that sounds like work worth doing, we would love to talk with you.