Invisible Voices

Bios

BILLY ALLEN

  • Teaches at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind
  • Professional speaker
  • Graduate of Gallaudet University
  • Installs and repairs video telephones for Sorenson Video Phones
  • Married with 2 children
  • Deaf since early childhood

COLIN GREGORY: (voice actor for Billy Allen)

  • Actor, singer and teacher at the Colorado Conservatory
  • Translates Billy’s signs into spoken words
  • Once planned to become a dentist
  • Is a triplet
  • Was born with an 80% hearing loss in one ear and used sign language regularly until the age of 18

SANDY LAHMANN

  • Director of Technical Assistance with Meeting the Challenge
  • Columnist for the Summit Daily News (Summit County, CO)
  • Former special education teacher specializing in students with cognitive, learning, and emotional disabilities
  • Avid monoskier and handcyclist
  • Director of Technical Assistance with Meeting the Challenge
  • Mother of two adult children
  • Began experiencing symptoms of multiple sclerosis in 2004

RICK MODDERMAN

  • Worked for a Wall Street-based brokerage firm
  • Currently regional sales manager for a medical supply company
  • Played competitive-level golf in high school; planned to become a golf pro
  • Other interests include NASCAR, cooking and entertaining
  • Has lived with a spinal cord injury for 22 years

REBECCA SHIELDS

  • Teacher, vision specialist and consultant
  • Her service dog, Rizzo, helps keep Rebecca on the move
  • Mother of 5 children
  • Deeply believes “that it isn’t what you see but how you see it that matters
  • Blind since shortly after birth

KEVIN PETTIT

  • Student at the Iliff School of Theology
  • Earned a PhD in physics and taught physics at Carleton College in Minnesota
  • Actor with PHAMALY: Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League
  • Volunteer for The United Church of Christ
  • Father of one son
  • 12 years ago a severe auto accident left Kevin with a traumatic brain injury

KELLY TOBIN

  • Has worked as a benefits counselor at an Independent Living Center, as well as a community organizer
  • Avid and independent traveler whose destinations include Europe and Indonesia
  • Mother of two daughters
  • Hopes to pursue a master’s degree in communications or health care administration
  • Was born with skeletal dysplasia – a group of congenital anomalies effecting the bone and cartilage
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