When you sit with Kelli Kernon, you quickly understand that hearing, to her, is more than a sense, it’s how we stay connected to the people we love. It’s the sound of a grandchild’s laughter, a whispered joke or the way a spouse calls your name at the end of a long day. Hearing is the pathway to relationships and connection. To lose it, she says, quietly unravels the parts of life that make us feel human.
Eighteen years ago, Kelli stepped into her father’s hearing practice, expecting to help where needed. Instead, she discovered her calling. She witnessed people walk in frustrated, isolated, or embarrassed, and watched them walk out lighter (sometimes in tears) because they could finally participate in the world around them again. That transformation became the anchor of her career, and eventually, her life’s mission.
After the sudden loss of her brother and her father’s decision to step back, Kelli took ownership of five Heartland Hearing Center locations on September 1, 2024. It was a difficult transition, but it also gave her the chance to honor her family’s legacy by building a practice rooted in compassion, education, and exceptionally personalized care. Today, Heartland serves patients across Farmington, Crystal City, South County, Wentzville, Washington, and St. Clair.
Patients notice the difference immediately. Appointments at Heartland don’t feel transactional — they feel intimate. Kelli sits beside her patients, not across from them, and explains everything with warmth and clarity. There’s no pressure, no sales pitch, no rush. Just a genuine desire to help people regain their identity.
She teaches every patient that we don’t hear with our ears alone; we hear with our brain. When hearing declines, the brain works harder to fill in missing pieces, leading to exhaustion, confusion, and withdrawal from social interactions. Many people don’t realize this as it's happening — they simply adapt, avoid conversations, or compensate to connect with the world around them. Early intervention is crucial, not only for hearing clarity but for protecting cognitive health. For adults in their forties, Kelli recommends a baseline exam; for those with early signs of loss, yearly monitoring can preserve word recognition and mental sharpness for years to come.
Modern hearing technology has transformed what is possible, and Heartland leads the way with today’s most advanced options. Starkey’s AI-driven instruments adapt to challenging environments, boost speech clarity, track wellness, detect falls, and restore spatial awareness in ways that feel natural and intuitive. The difference is often immediate. Most devices arrive within 24 hours, and patients are usually fitted within 48, beginning a gentle adjustment period that allows the brain to acclimate without overwhelming their nervous system.
The impact is often profound. One of Kelli’s patients, who is both significantly deaf and blind, travels nearly two hours from Illinois because of the trusting relationship they’ve built. For years, she could only grasp fragments of sentences. After being fit with new technology, she held her first full conversation. Not pieces. No guesswork. A real conversation — a moment Kelli describes as unforgettable. Another patient, a truck driver, summed it up simply: “I never realized how much life was happening around me until you fit me with these.”
These moments fuel her purpose. They’re why she keeps Heartland’s pricing accessible, honors most insurance, and maintains competitive rates for her private-pay clients. They’re why she continues to stay educated on the latest technologies available. But most of all, they’re why every person who walks into Heartland feels valued; because Kelli never forgets the human being behind each test result.
Kelli eagerly attends educational summits and conferences, leaving her mark on the industry by earning accolades like Starkey’s CEO Circle, and multiple “Best Of” awards for Heartland Hearing Centers.
Hearing loss rarely announces itself. It creeps in quietly, and people adjust without realizing how much they’re losing. Helping someone you love take that first step, encouraging them to schedule a baseline exam, or simply acknowledging their struggle with empathy, can give them back the moments they didn’t know they’d been missing.
Kelli says it often: “Hear better, live better.”
For countless families across the Parkland, that promise becomes reality the moment they walk through Heartland Hearing’s doors.