We Are Deaf: One & Many

Ask not what the Deaf Community can do for you; Ask what you can do for your Deaf Community.

• At age 16, I became a founding youth board member of a local deaf services agency.
• In 2002, I organized a protest rally against the government taking a deaf mother to court for refusing to agree to implant her two deaf children. The result: the children did not get implanted.
• In 2006, I organized a protest rally and wrote a press release alerting the media to the rally, about the closure of mental health services for the Deaf.  The result: The mental health services did not close but instead was turned over to the local deaf services agency to operate.
• In 2007, I began a grassroots project on DeafRead, called Equal Communication Access. With the DeafRead participants’ help, I produced a video describing what Equal Communication Access is all about.
• In 2008, I along with several others founded the ASL Think Tank, an educational clearinghouse providing awareness of bilingual programs for Deaf babies and children.
• I am an university student, pursuing a bachelor of science degree in Public and Nonprofit Administration, with the hopes of working in the Deaf nonprofit field after graduation.
• I am now a board member of the local deaf services agency that I helped to establish at age 16.
• I am an ASL mentor to two hearing individuals who are involved with the Deaf Community.
• I am a member of the Michigan Deaf Association and National Association of Deaf.
• I am the author of The Deaf Edge, a Deaf advocacy and sociopolitical blog, increasing awareness to countless readers and viewers.

We Are Deaf: One & Many

Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. - Barack Obama