About me
Amy Knackstedt, MA, CED is the Knight Family Endowed Director of the Family Center at Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) in St. Louis, MO. She has 15 years of experience in deaf education. She joined CID in 2019 as a parent educator in the Joanne Parrish Knight Family Center and has been the director since 2021. Amy received her undergraduate degree in deaf education from Fontbonne University. She taught in first grade and preschool self-contained classrooms at St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf before earning her master’s degree in early intervention in deaf education in 2012 from Fontbonne University. She then spent the next several years, providing early intervention and school-aged listening and spoken language services, via teleintervention, as a part of the iHear program in St. Louis. She holds professional certification from the Council on Education of the Deaf and is credentialed in Missouri and Illinois’ early intervention systems. Amy has presented at EHDI, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing conference, and for IL’s early intervention professional development system. She also regularly guest lectures for Washington University’s Audiology and Communication Sciences program, providing the early intervention lens. Amy co-developed and presents a workshop, held at CID, centered around building caregiver capacity while coaching families. She currently serves on the Illinois Telehealth for Early Intervention Workgroup, Missouri Newborn Hearing Screening Standing Committee, Fontbonne University’s IPEI2 Advisory Board, and on the Illinois Child and Family Connections Leadership Team for CFC 21.