Dr. Louise Sinden-Carroll

Dr. Louise Sinden-Carroll is an accomplished advocate dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. She is the Chief Executive of The National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) in New Zealand, and works voluntarily as the General Secretary of the International Federation of Hard of Hearing People (IFHOH) and as a Trustee of the Human Rights for All Trust in New Zealand (HRFA).

Born with a genetic collagen disorder and developing hearing loss in her 30s, Dr. Sinden-Carroll has facilitated Human Rights Workshops and discussion groups on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) for people with hearing loss from organizations spanning 26 countries.  Over the last four years, she has led a collaboration of deaf and hard of hearing communities to address insufficient broadcast media captioning in New Zealand. This year she earned her Ph.D., having completed a public policy thesis considering the New Zealand government response to prisoners with hearing loss in New Zealand prisons.