Suzanne DeMallie was an ordinary CPA and mother of three prior to 2005. That’s when she was told that her son had an auditory processing disorder, and she began researching information to learn more about his diagnosis and how she could help him. But what she uncovered was a much greater problem that impacted every student in the typical classroom. She learned that all students could miss as much as third of what their teacher said due to poor classroom acoustics and immature neurological hearing abilities; and yet, there was a simple cost-effective solution - give a teacher a wireless microphone and put speakers in the classroom.

Suzanne could have just fought to get this technology into her son’s classroom, but she was determined to bring this information to the attention of parents, teachers, and education decision makers nationwide. After her first presentation to just twenty people in a little school library, she was told, “I don’t want to discourage you, but…” Suzanne was warned that the public system bureaucracy was likely to prevent or at least delay schools integrating the technology for many years. But that didn’t stop Suzanne. Within ten months of starting a campaign in her district, her school system proposed putting $400,000 in their school budget to start wiring the classrooms for sound.  

Suzanne could have ended the battle right there, but she didn’t. She had seen first-hand the impact that the inability to hear or understand what you hear can have on a child. She believed that all children deserved the opportunity to hear their teacher regardless of where they were seated in the classroom. As Suzanne said, “Every child deserves a front-row seat.” She formed a non-profit organization, wrote articles, gave speeches and workshops and by July 2007, she gained the support of nearly six million PTA members when she authored a resolution that they ratified.  

By 2009, after four years of fighting this battle – one that resulted in many students throughout the US benefitting from this technology -  she decided to stop. But not to go back to her former life. Suzanne wanted to make a difference in education on a more personal level. She went back to school, got a master’s degree, and became a teacher in the Baltimore County Public School system. That’s when she saw problems in education from a very different perspective, from within the classroom.

As the author of a best-selling book, Can You Hear Me Now? Suzanne honestly addresses the problems in education that leave so many children behind. She vividly describes the difference between the intent of education policies and reality of putting them into practice in a classroom. She encourages parents and educators to ‘join the conversation’ to generate improvements in our public education system, and she guides them through the process using her own successful experience. Suzanne believes that if we don’t improve public education, eventually the only children left in the system will be those who had no other choice. She wants public education to be a ‘better choice’ for ALL students.

Suzanne’s speeches empower listeners. They discover that anyone can create something better for others, just as she did. She provides the steps to break through barriers and examples using her own experience. She speaks specifically to virtues and attributes of leadership, calling on her audience to tap into what they already have, to “Be the leader” making her message relevant for all audiences.

Suzanne’s work has appeared in The Official Journal of The American Consortium for Equity in Education, TeachThought, Our Children Magazine, THE Journal, Towson Times, and The Baltimore Sun. She has presented at the National School Boards Association’s annual convention; to national, state, and local PTA groups and to politicians. Suzanne was awarded the National PTA Life Achievement Award in May 2007, the highest honor from the nation’s largest child advocacy organization and most recently was named a 2021 Champion of Equity by the American Consortium for Equity in Education.