THE GOOD LIFE
H E ALT H
Clear Cover
CPCC communications prof developed a mask that protects you, transparently BY KATHLEEN PURVIS PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERMAN NICHOLSON
IT’S TIME TO UNMASK Charlotte’s very own masked crusader: Dr. Anne McIntosh, a communications expert who was thinking about masks long before COVID. McIntosh, who lives in Davidson, is a communications professor at Central Piedmont Community College. Her specialty is communication studies, from how it works to how it doesn’t, with a focus on conflict resolution and problem solving. Her own communication crisis led her to create the Safe ‘N’ Clear Communicator, a
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CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JANUARY 2022
mask with a clear panel that allows people to see your mouth and read your expressions. McIntosh is deaf, so she knows what can happen when people can’t hear you or even read your lips. “Communication is a basic human right,” she says. “You have to have that connection.” Her own mask journey started in 2001, when she gave birth to her first child. After 24 hours of labor, her doctor ordered a cesarean section and whisked her from the labor and delivery suite to an operating
room—where everyone, from the surgeon to her husband, was masked. No one could tell her what was happening because she couldn’t see their lips. She couldn’t make sure anyone knew her blood type, or that she’s allergic to penicillin. “Everything went fine. Our daughter was born,” McIntosh tells me over Zoom, which allows her to read my lips. “But I thought about how close it could have come. There was no time to think about how to communicate. No one got
