About the Founder

My daughter, Ally, giving me a kiss on my cheek for Mother’s Day, 2011.

Hello Everyone,

My name is Melissa Tumblin. I am not a medical doctor nor am I a psychologist, but I am a mother to a child who was born without her right ear who has hearing loss. I am a stay at home mom who is married to my best friend, Brent, and I have two very happy little girls, Hailey and Ally. Ally was born with Microtia and Aural Atresia of her right ear. Because of advocating for Ally, I have learned about hearing loss, school programs, and surgical options more than I ever imagined I would. For these reasons and my passion for helping others, I wish to share what I have learned with everyone. I have been asked to speak at events and small gatherings. I have served as a Board of Director Member for the Hands & Voices Organization and as a member of the Parent Advocacy Board/Council for Children’s Hospital Colorado. My family and I live in Colorado, USA. I have over ten years of medical/surgical device marketing experience and I continue to work part time as a medical device marketing consultant. My career has taught me to be an advocate for the products that I market and for the companies that I have marketed for. Now, that I am a mother, I find myself being an advocate for my daughters, especially for my Ally. I received my Bachelors degree in Psychology/Biology (EPOB, geared toward premed) from the University of Colorado at Boulder and I love what I do.

Melissa Tumblin, Founder of Ear Community

I would like to share with you why I created EarCommunity.org and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook. I wanted to find a way to help promote educational awareness about Microtia and Atresia in hopes of making things easier for the next family who has a child born with Microtia and Atresia. I wanted to help families and individuals learn more about hearing loss and how to better understand the affects hearing loss can have on individuals and their lives. I also wanted to help families connect with each other so they can share experiences with one another.  It is very important to realize that none of us are alone because we all have each other now. One of my main goals for both sites is to help promote parent, self, and patient advocacy. I believe in doing your research and learning as much as you can so you can be well informed about the choices that can help you make the best decisions. One of the worst feelings is realizing later on that you were not informed of “all” your options and being left to wonder if things could have been different somehow, if you had only known about another choice. While at the same time, it is very important to help update our medical professionals regarding what you have learned about Microtia and Atresia since it is fairly rare.  New information can often help our doctors and audiologists learn how to help us better. And so, I created our support group so that it can help educate as many people as possible, including everything else that goes along with Microtia and Atresia and hearing loss. Our support group can help support individuals and families emotionally as well. Please remember to do your research, ask questions, and remember that you have the right to know what “all” of your options are. When someone is not informed of all their options, they may be missing out on what might have been the best choice or decision for them or a loved one. I hope as our support group continues to grow, the information posted will help make it easier for families and individuals to make the best choices and decisions.

Our support group is a warm and caring place that I hope everyone feels comfortable coming to. I do hope our support group helps all of us to grow in many ways, even if it helps to make us a little bit more open minded and accepting of more people on our earth. Thank you for being a part of our community!

* Update: The Microtia and Atresia Support Group and the Ear Community Organization will be a decade old on May 20th, 2020. Since then, Ear Community has come a long way as a leading helpful resource for families and medical professionals. Our organization collaborates with many organizations including the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Educational Audiology Association (EAA), Early Hearing Detection Intervention Meeting and organization (EHDI), AudiologyOnline (AO), Continued.com and the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)/American Association for Dental Research just to name a few. Our organization is on a whole genome sequencing research grant with Harvard, Vanderbilt and MIT through the Broad Institute and on a collaborative grant with The CAUSE Team at Seattle Children’s Hospital’s craniofacial department. Our genetics findings will be published in 2022! We have helped collaborate on research for unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and have made a lot of presentations over the years. Our organization has also advocated for mandating hearing device insurance coverage on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. We even established National Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day which takes place every November 9th and is embraced by Microtia and Atresia families and medical professionals all over the world. In the past decade, our organization and it’s online support groups have managed to help thousands of Microtia and Atresia families and update hundreds of medical professionals. Many Microtia and Atresia clinics have also opened over the years here in the US and some in other countries. We collaborate with many of these facilities including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, NYEE Institute, the California Ear Institute, the House Ear Institute, and many audiology clinics and children’s hospitals. Since 2011, Ear Community has hosted over 100 events all over the US and in many other countries bringing together nearly 25,000 people. Our organization has donated over 150 bone conduction hearing devices to children and adults born with Microtia and Atresia who are in need and have been denied insurance coverage by the insurance provider and we have awarded nearly 20 college scholarships to date. Ear Community is thankful for all of our families that have helped make us a community. We are also grateful to all of our sponsors over the years (Cochlear Americas, Med-EL, Medtronic, Phonak, Oticon Medical and Stryker). We still have a lot left to give! Most importantly, we are so happy that so many Microtia and Atresia families have learned about all of their options and will never feel alone because they have our community and our organization here for them.

Sincerely,

Melissa Tumblin
Founder of EarCommunity.org and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group