On November 16, the College of Health and Human Services will host the 2023 Health and Human Services Hero Awards to recognize individuals who are making a transformative impact in their profession. We will highlight the eight honorees in our Heroes Blog Series.
Name: Amber Haydock
Occupation: Deaf and hard of hearing educational specialist, Lori Ann Infant Center in Fresno Unified School District
Nominated By: Department of Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies
Amber Haydock was born to educate. As a child of a teacher of the deaf, with a deaf brother, her connection to the Deaf community and passion for early education is lifelong and deeply meaningful.
A Clovis native and Buchanan High School graduate, Haydock received her bachelor’s degree and multiple subject teaching credential from Biola University in 2005. At first she resisted following in her mother’s footsteps fearing it was, in her words, “the easy route”. However, after completing her student teaching she realized that deaf education truly was her calling. She returned to Fresno and received her master’s degree in deaf education from Fresno State in 2008.
After graduating, Haydock taught at both Birney and Norseman elementary schools in Fresno Unified. This was a special time for Haydock, as she was able to work and learn alongside her mother Paula for several years before Paula retired in 2015.
“The best part of my job as a teacher was when I was able to simply have a natural, smooth conversation with a student,” Haydock said. “The topic of conversation was never significant. It was the fact that those students were learning a language fluently enough that conversation could happen so naturally was incredibly rewarding to witness.”
Over the years, Haydock has remained steadfast in her commitment to mentoring student-teachers and clinicians from the Department of Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies at Fresno State. Her decision to do this is twofold – it allows students the opportunity to gain valuable field experience, which in turn, will eventually help alleviate the shortage of teachers of the deaf in the Central Valley.
“I’m proud to be associated with a program that values the Deaf community and is committed to bettering the education for this population,” Haydock said of Fresno State’s deaf education program. “I stay in touch with some of my former professors in various ways when our career paths cross involving my students in the Deaf community, which in itself, is a mighty and tight knit group.”
In her current role as a deaf and hard of hearing educational specialist with the Lori Ann Infant Program within Fresno Unified School District, Haydock is the first point of contact for parents with infants recently identified as deaf or hard of hearing. In this capacity, Haydock offers emotional support and education on communication options and hearing device choices, while empowering families to implement best practices in their homes to give their deaf child the best possible start.
“Typically speaking, for hearing families, having a deaf child is never what they were expecting or planning,” Haydock said.” Working through all those feelings with the family with positive language, rather than deficit language, allows the family to break through and see that their child will be ok in the future, and to take pride in their child, exactly the way that child is today.”
The 2023 Health and Human Services Hero Awards, which celebrates heroes from each of the seven departments, as well as centers and institutes within our college, will be held virtually this year. For more information on the event, contact Beth Wilkinson at bwilkinson@csufresno.edu.
Fresno State College of Health and Human Services 