A Gift That Could Give a New Voice to Deaf Children

Anne Marie Tharpe, PhD, and her husband, Jim Kramka, are making a gift to VUMC through their wills in honor of Tharpe’s late father.

What began as a high school volunteer project would eventually lead Anne Marie Tharpe, PhD, to a career devoted to understanding and mitigating the impact of hearing loss in children. 

Dr. Tharpe — now chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, associate director of the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, and a worldwide authority on pediatric hearing loss — is ensuring that work endures and grows. And to continue that legacy long into the future, she and her husband Jim Kramka, senior director for Housing Facilities Operations and Management at Vanderbilt University, are making a gift to Vanderbilt Health through their wills in honor of her late father, the Honorable James M. Tharpe.

The James M. Tharpe Fund for Pediatric Communication Disorders will support endowed research and directorships in the divisions within the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences that serve children.

Tharpe earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Vanderbilt, and since 2009 has been associate director of the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center and chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences.

Tharpe envisions a world where hearing loss is treated with genetic medicine and fully implantable devices will supplant devices worn outside the body. Her generous gift will support that future research, as well as offering financial assistance for families who use services such as the Mama Lere Hearing School, a preschool for children with hearing loss.

“I don’t see this gift as perpetuating my work as much as helping the department continue to move forward,” she said. “The work that we do here…provides hope and opportunities, and enhances the lives of individuals who have more struggles than most of us.”