Growing up in a small town in Southern Illinois, I learned the importance of three holidays: Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veterans Day. The town had many veterans from World War II and Vietnam. These holidays weren’t about being out of school, fireworks or simply putting up an American flag. They were about respect and honor, and these were times to share stories. As a child, you’re entertained by stories of battle, wartime [...]

Four years ago, I did something that many people would consider a risky endeavor: I climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Had I ever done anything even remotely like this? No. Was the eight-day climb a challenge? Absolutely. But that’s exactly why I did it. Saying "yes" to this didn’t come out of nowhere. I didn’t wake up one day and suddenly become a risk-taker. While preparing for this climb, I spent [...]

When I started at Starkey nearly 25 years ago, the hearing industry looked very different than it does today. Dozens of hearing manufacturers have dwindled down to just five around the globe, with Starkey being the only one based in the U.S. Starkey looked different too. Bill Austin’s vision has helped grow this company to more than 6,000 employees in 26+ facilities across the globe. It’s an incredible achievement considering, as he told Our American Stories [...]

I was 19 years old when I first walked into Starkey’s All Make Repair and Earmold Lab. My job was to clean up old hearing aids and make them look as new as possible after repair. I also polished earmold pieces. In 1994, as a teenager still trying to figure out my direction in life, I never would have guessed that in that tiny corner of a growing global company I would realize my life’s [...]