The National Court Reporters Association posthumously bestowed its highest honor, the 2025 Distinguished Service Award (DSA), on Carol Studenmund, FAPR, RDR, CRR, CRC, a captioner and agency owner from Portland, Ore. Studenmund was honored at a special awards ceremony held at the 2025 NCRA Conference & Expo. The award was accepted by her husband on her behalf.
The NCRA DSA recognizes the distinguished work and service by an individual member for the benefit of the court reporting and captioning professions, including service to NCRA as a member, a committee member, a director, or an officer of the Association. Other displays of distinguished work include contributing to the JCR, the official membership magazine, service to a state or local court reporting association, or service in the field of public relations or public affairs. Award winners are nominated by their peers and are recognized each year at the NCRA Conference & Expo.
Studenmund held the nationally recognized professional certifications of Registered Diplomate Reporter (RDR), Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR), and Certified Realtime Captioner (CRC), and was also a Fellow of the Academy of Professional Reporters (FAPR). She passed away in December 2024 and was nominated for the 2025 award by numerous peers and colleagues, including her business partner Robin Nodland, FAPR, RDR, CRR. The pair started LNS Court Reporting & Captioning in 1987 after launching their careers together as freelance court reporters with the same firm. Studenmund served as president of the firm until her passing. Studenmund earned a bachelor’s degree in arts in 1979 from the University of Chicago, Ill., and graduated from the Court Reporting Institute in 1983.
At the national level, she served on or chaired numerous NCRA committees including the Certified Realtime Captioner, Captioning Regulatory Policy, CART and Broadcast Captioning, Captioning Community of Interest, and the Realtime Testing committees. She was also a frequent seminar speaker at NCRA events and a frequent contributor to the JCR magazine.
At the state level, Studenmund served as president of the Oregon Court Reporters Association in 2001-2002, on the Distinguished Service Award Committee, and as chair of the Legislative Committee. She was the driving force along with the Portland City Council to launch the grassroots campaign “Turn on the Captions.” She was also instrumental in helping Portland become the first city in the United States to require closed captions to be turned on permanently on all televisions in public spaces including hospitals, gyms, restaurants, and bars. More than a dozen cities followed the move after Oregon and Washington state mandated the same requirement to ensure equity for the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
Within her community, Studenmund served as chair, vice chair, and commissioner of the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, as well as provided pro bono captioning for a local church for a group of deaf/hard-of-hearing friends.
“Carol’s enthusiasm for caption was contagious,” wrote Nodland in her letter of nomination. “Carol’s advocacy continued thought her life. She inspired me to caption at the church associated with the school my daughter attended and to volunteer to caption the monthly Portland chapter of Self-Help for Hard of Hearing. She referred to us as the captioning church ladies.”
Studenmund’s service on the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission gave her the voice that the cable company Comcast could not ignore and Nodland added that, because of her, “the quality of captions improved dramatically.”
According to Darlene Parker, FAPR, RPR (Ret.), who co-wrote the first Captioning Best Practices for NCRA, which was later adopted by the Federal Communications Commission, Studenmund was one of the most accomplished women she had ever met. “Besides court reporter and captioner, Carol’s other titles included leader, champion, advocate, businesswoman, president, chairperson, speaker, teacher, diplomat, negotiator, consummate professional, volunteer, good friend, wife, and mother. She tirelessly advocated for the captioning industry and for access for the deaf and hard of hearing community,” Parker wrote in her nomination letter.
“Not only was Carol extremely intelligent and impassioned about the causes she believed in, but she knew how to inspire and deal with all types of people, while being strong, fair, and kind. She was a force of nature, whose determination and advocacy work will be sorely missed,” Parker noted.
“Carol was a pioneer in captioning and was instrumental in creating the standards that are in use today,” wrote longtime colleague Doug Friend, FAPR, RDR, CRR (Ret.), a past president of NCRA and current Chair of the National Court Reporters Foundation, of which Studenmund was an Angel Donor and fundraising contributor.
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