PROJECT LEADERSHIP

MHIT's leadership team has been working together for 19 years. 

Ms. Crump is the statewide Mental Health Interpreter Coordinator for the Office of Deaf Services, Alabama Department of Mental Health. In this capacity, Ms. Crump has been responsible for developing the Mental Health Interpreter Training initiative and developing certification standards that have been adopted by DMH and Alabama State Code. Her work in Mental Health Interpreter training has received national recognition from many organizations including the National Alliance of Mentally Ill (NAMI), has been internationally cited for excellence by the Charter of Linguists and described by internationally reowned researcher, author, mental health program administrator and psychologist, Dr. Neil Glickman, as “establishing the national benchmark” for mental health interpreting.

Charlene is a frequent presenter and consultant at various national and state venues, presenting on mental health interpreting. She created and operates several listservs and moderates a monthly online discussion forum related to current research in mental health and deafness/interpreting through Jacksonville State University’s distance program.

Mr. Hamerdinger has been involved with the deaf rights since the early 1980’s and has been a leader in the field of mental health and deafness since the early 90’s. He has been the Director of the Office of Deaf Services since its inception. Before coming to Alabama in January, 2003, he was Director of the Office of Deaf and Linguistic Support Services at the Missouri Department of Mental Health. His more than 25 years of work in the field has led to being awarded the Alice Cogswell award for service to deaf people by the Gallaudet Alumni Association and the Fredrick Schreiber Award by ADARA.

After receiving has Masters Degree in Counseling at Gallaudet University in 1989, Steve moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work as a mental health counselor at the New Mexico School for the Deaf. His practice there focused on deaf children and their families. While living in New Mexico, he was instrumental in helping to establish the New Mexico Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and was elected as the first Chair of the Commission. He is a Past President of the New Mexico Association of the Deaf.    [MORE] 

Steve Hamerdinger, MA.

Director of Deaf Services

Ms. Reese is the Deaf Services Coordinator for the state with the Alabama Department of Mental Health. She previously worked as a Regional Coordinator for the Deaf in Region II/Birmingham area. Before that she worked as a resource trainer for the CAPE-D/HH (Center for Abuse Prevention and Education for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing children) and has provided trainings to various schools/programs serving deaf and hard of hearing children. She has also worked on a curriculum designed to help school teachers/administrators teach sexual abuse prevention to children from K-12. Previously, she was an assistant director for the Gallaudet University Regional Center in Massachusetts where she developed workshops, conferences relating to the area of deafness.

She has had a multitude of experiences working with deaf and hard of hearing clients in the mental health setting. She currently holds a certification as a National Certified Counselor.  She  The Office of Deaf Services' SLPI Coordinator and coordinates Mental Health and Deafness Online Training semi-monthly where experts in the field of mental health and deafness discuss trends and how to work with consumers. . Shannon received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Georgia and her M.A. in Mental Health Counseling from Gallaudet University.

Shannon Reese, M.A., NCC 
Main Track and Volunteer Coordinator

Charlene Crump, MA., NCC,CRC,CI/CT,
ASLTA-Q, QMHI.

Mental Health Interpreter Coordinator, Project Director