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Celebrating 60 Years of Caring at the Callier Center

July 8, 2024

Dr. Maynard Ewton, Rosemarie Ewton, Sara Martineau and David Martineau.
The Callier Center has benefited from the generosity of long-term supporters such as (from left) Dr. Maynard Ewton, Rosemarie Ewton, Sara Martineau and David Martineau.

For six decades, the Callier Center for Communication Disorders has helped children and adults with speech, language and hearing disorders connect with the world. Throughout its history, generous donor support has enabled the Callier Center to become an invaluable resource for North Texas.

“As we reflect on the past 60 years, we can envision the ever-widening circles of lives that have been touched by the Callier Center,” said Angela Shoup BS’89, MS’92, PhD’94, the Ludwig A. Michael, MD Executive Director of the Callier Center. “Thanks to our supporters’ commitment to our mission, we know that those circles will continue to expand and that we will be able to serve our growing community for decades to come.”

Each year, over 5,000 patients receive treatment at the Callier Center, which is also home to some of the nation’s best academic programs in audiology and speech-language pathology. These milestones were made possible in part by long-term support from individuals and families committed to the center’s three-part mission of treatment, training and research.

Sara and David Martineau have supported the Callier Center for more than 30 years. Sara Martineau joined the Callier Center Board of Trustees in 1993, and the couple established the Sara T. Martineau Professorship in Communication Disorders in 2010. Numerous subsequent gifts have facilitated renovations at the Callier Center, helped patients afford life-changing care and ensured advances in speech-pathology and audiology clinical care in perpetuity.

“Callier is always in our hearts and minds,” Sara Martineau said. “We are proud to be a part of their great work.”

Beth and Chuck Thoele posing for a photo.
Beth and Chuck Thoele have supported the Callier Center for more than 10 years while providing leadership on the board of trustees for the Foundation for the Callier Center and Communication Disorders.

Over the last decade, Beth and Chuck Thoele have also made significant investments in the Callier Center’s mission. They created the Thoele Fund for Group Therapy Programs to help provide intensive language intervention programs for groups of children.

“We are fortunate to have a nationally and internationally recognized clinic located right here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Beth Thoele said. “Consistent, loving and superior care is provided to all patients. We have seen countless lives improved because of treatment at the Callier Center.”

Since 2007, thousands of supporters have come together during the Callier Cares Luncheon to raise nearly $3 million for the Callier Care Fund. In April, the 2024 Callier Cares Luncheon attracted nearly 300 guests raising more than $370,000, including the largest single gift in the luncheon’s history – a $50,000 commitment from Rosemarie and Maynard Ewton.

The Ewtons have supported Callier for over nine years and established the Dr. Maynard and Mrs. Rosemarie Ewton Endowment for Research, Treatment and Training for Early Childhood Development in 2021. The endowment supports clinical research and training in autism treatment, as well as patient care for autistic children whose families cannot afford services.

“We are encouraged about where Callier can go and what it can do in the future to make the world a better place for people with autism,” Maynard Ewton said.

John and Anne McPherson posing for a photo.
John and Anne McPherson have been part of the Callier family for more than two decades. Their gifts are helping advance Callier’s efforts to develop new audiology technology.

Some of the Callier Center’s most passionate supporters include families who have benefited from the center’s care. Anne and John McPherson’s sons, John and Todd, grew up as part of the Callier family. Both children were diagnosed with hearing loss as infants and received cochlear implants from the Callier Center as babies. Although their sons are now adults, the couple continues to support Callier patients, continuing a legacy that has now lasted beyond two decades.

The McPhersons have targeted their support to advancing care for individuals with hearing loss, including Callier’s innovative research into 3D earmold printing, hoping that other children benefit from early interventions at the Callier Center as their own sons did.

“Even with amazing technology like hearing aids, sometimes the simplest thing, like an earmold that doesn’t fit, can prevent it from being effective,” said Anne McPherson, president of the Callier Foundation and chairperson of the Callier Family Care Campaign. “Callier’s innovative research in 3D printing helps children with hearing loss experience the benefits of this technology faster.”

In 2021, the Callier Center launched the Callier Family Care Campaign with a $15 million goal to ensure a continued legacy of care. To date, the Callier Center has raised more than $14.8 million toward this goal during the campaign.

Learn more at utdallas.edu/calliercenter.