Family Hearing - Lafayette

Valarie loves making meaningful connections with clients in order to make their communication goals a reality. With her passion for helping people and a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication sciences and disorders from the University of South Florida, she’s perfect for her position. Upon graduating and before joining our team, she worked at Let’s Talk Speech Therapy and Plum Creek Academy.

Growing up in a bilingual household in Florida, she developed a fascination with language, speech, and hearing. Her background in speech-language pathology provides her with the ability to approach every situation in a comprehensive manner that shines a light on the patient’s experience as a whole. Her goal is to tie the circle of speech and hearing together so that communication is more effective with less effort. She prides herself on being a part of a team that is professional and friendly, where genuine relationships and an elite level of care are a priority. She’s able to expand her knowledge in various directions and be in an office environment that is filled with supportive, intelligent, professional women.

In her leisure time, Valarie enjoys spending time with friends and family, running, playing volleyball, practicing yoga, singing, and knitting.

Jennifer graduated with honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she studied speech, language, and hearing sciences. She has been working in the hearing care industry since 2002 and joined our staff in May of 2005. As a student, she was a member of her university’s ASL (American Sign Language) club and audiology society, as well as the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. More recently, she was presented with Audigy’s 2016 Provider of Distinction Award.

Her fascination with hearing loss began when she took her first ASL class at 16. Through her experience in class and getting to know the local deaf community, she became passionate about human connections and communication. She decided to study speech, language, and hearing science in college, which required her to practice hearing evaluations. She tested her parents, who both showed signs of hearing loss that could be improved with the use of hearing aids. Her love for helping people reconnect with their lives deepened. She’s incredibly proud to be a part of the longest-serving hearing care practice in Boulder County and a team that takes pride in exceptional customer service.

Outside of helping people hear, she loves to dance. She has practiced ballet for over 30 years and has recently started to learn Argentine tango. ASL is still a big part of her life, and she regularly uses it with her patients.

Chelsea Walters, BS, BC-HIS, graduated from the University of Northern Colorado’s audiology and speech program in 2008. She worked in the profession for several years in Colorado and New Mexico before joining our family of hearing care professionals.

She always knew that she wanted to help people and went into speech therapy, shadowing a friend who helped pre-K kids with developmental disabilities expand their language skills. After graduating she was involved in implementing audio enhancement systems in classrooms and grew curious about the other end of the communication chain — hearing.

The next step was taking a position as an audiology assistant, which evolved her into the accomplished hearing specialist she is today. She loves the diversity of the job, the camaraderie of her team, and the chance to build relationships with people each day. Her team is genuinely passionate about helping people, and they appreciate each other’s talents.

Her career blends her passion for teaching, therapy, relationships, and music all in one. She’s a vinyl collector and active concertgoer claiming to be a Red Rocks veteran. She not only loves being outdoors for concerts, but she is also an avid canoer, camper, and hiker. Traveling is very important to her, and she’s lived in six different states and visited nine different countries. She enjoys all these activities with her husband and family members who live across Colorado, Minnesota, and Arizona.

Christopher Schweitzer, Ph.D., F-AAA (Board Certified Senior Audiologist) has a long background in technical and clinical research resulting in numerous patents and improved methods of amplification. He has worked on projects in Europe, Asia, Africa and the U.S. Since his own hearing was damaged in military service, Family Hearing is naturally Veteran-Friendly. In addition to teaching in several graduate audiology programs, Dr. Schweitzer has published and lectured widely, and he continues to serve on national and international standards committees. He and his wife, Karima, have sought to nurture a rich balance of personal caring and technical expertise in the Family Hearing Center culture.

Karima Thobani, BC-HIS (Board-Certified Hearing Instrument Specialist) is co-owner and President, with 35+ years of experience in solving hearing challenges have made her highly-appreciated by many Boulder area consumers. She studied Early Childhood Education in London before pursuing a career in the hearing profession. Competent in six languages, but most importantly fluent in the language of personalized hearing assistance, Karima is a long time member of the International Hearing Society. A hearing aid user for many years herself, she has served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Hearing Society. Her passion for learning and service is contagious.