Among Ourselves' update

Dr. Donna Mertens, a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Research, gave several presentations in New Zealand during August and September as part of her sabbatical: “Social Transformation and Research,” NGĀ PAE O TE MĀRAMATANGA (one of eight Centres of Research Excellence funded by the New Zealand Government) Seminar, University of Auckland; “Disability Research and Social Transformation,” Donald Beasley Research Institute, Dunedin; “The Credibility of Research Evidence from a Transformative Stance,” Building Research Capacity Seminar, Palmerston North; “Introduction to Transformative Research,” Massey University Graduate School, Palmerston University; “Transformative Research with the Disability Community,” Victoria University, Pipitea Campus, Wellington; “Bringing a Social Justice Lens to Credible Evidence in Programme Evaluation” (keynote address) and “Linking Evaluation with social justice,” annual meeting of the Australasian Evaluation Society, Wellington.

Dr. William McCrone, former dean of the School of Education and Human Services and professor emeritus, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Communication Services for the Deaf.

Michael Yates, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Gallaudet, is featured in the fall issue of Eye on Psi Chi, the magazine of the International Honor Society in Psychology, for winning the Psi Chi/Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes (NCAVC) Internship Grant for fall 2009. Internship recipients support NCAVC’s mission to conduct empirical research on factors involved in violent crime. In addition to the Psi Chi grant, Yates has been awarded a two-year Eisenhower Fellowship through the Department of Transportation and a 2009 Scholastic Honors Internship position through the FBI. He was recently invited to Italy to present his research on mental status evaluations of deaf and hard of hearing people.

VL2-affiliated researcher and Psychology Department faculty member Dr. Donna Morere was quoted in an Education Week news feature on VL2’s Early Education Longitudinal Study, EELS. See “Inside School Research.”

“Transform, Not Reform,” an article by Dr. Francis Duffy, professor and program director education specialist in the Department of Administration and Supervision, on the need to transform school systems, appears in The School Administrator, the monthly magazine of the American Association of School Administrators.

Teresa Burke, an instructor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, was profiled twice in the media recently. Her article about her neighborhood of Barelas in Albuquerque, N.M, “Ten Best Things about Barelas,” appeared in the October issue of Albuquerque: The Magazine. She also was a guest on the local PBS television station, KNME to discuss the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Women’s basketball coach Kevin Cook was inducted into the Urbana University Athletic Hall of Fame on October 9. Cook led the Bison to their best season in a decade with a 14-12 record and a sixth-seed in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament. He graduated from Urbana in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in social science, and was a member of the Urbana men’s basketball program his freshman season as a reserve. Cook received the prestigious Carol Eckman Award last spring from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Gallaudet Interpreting Service news: Juniper Sussman and Caitlin Smith recently led an informative all-day workshop for more than 20 participants entitled “Working with the ‘In-betweenies’: Interpreting for Second Language Learners of ASL.” Participants had an opportunity to benefit from a rich panel discussion about the experience of working with interpreters from deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing panel members ranging in age from 15 to over 50. GIS staff interpreters have also been well represented at national and local conferences. Jeff Hardison and Patty Moers Patterson served on the interpreting team for the Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research Conference in Indiana; Adam Bartley, Candas Barnes, Joe Lucas, Patterson, and Phyllis Rogers interpreted for the National Science Foundation Science of Learning Centers Annual Meeting in Northern Virginia; and Beth Gregorich and Amanda Mueller were among a team of GIS staff and freelancers who interpreted during the recent Potomac Chapter of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. At the latter event, Gregorich and Mueller interpreted for internationally renowned scholar Dennis Cokely during a workshop entitled “Interpreting Cars, Dogs, and Cows: Culturally Rich Realities.”

Dr. Kristen Harmon and Melissa Malzkuhn from Gallaudet, Dr. Rain Bosworth from the University of California, San Diego, and Dr. Peter Hauser from the Rochester Institute of Technology were among the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) staff/researchers participated in a Science of Learning Center outreach event, the October 3 Ultimate Block Party in New York City’s Central Park, a celebration that emphasizes how science can be fun and how play can lead to learning. As part of that event, the staff/researchers were interviewed by a film crew for the “Science Network” for a feature on the Science Network’s “Science of Educating” site.

In addition, several companies and organizations have sought the expertise of VL2 staff members recently. Malzkuhn, coordinator of community engagement, served on a November 4 advisory panel on access and aging for ATT. Harmon, who is the director of integration of research and education, is the outgoing senior co-chair of the Committee for Disability Issues for the Modern Language Association, and she continues to function as a consultant for them on issues related to the deaf community.
Silvestro “Silvio” Menzano, who received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Gallaudet in 2002, appeared on the popular game show “Jeopardy!” on November 1 and 2. “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to appear as a contestant on ‘Jeopardy!'”, Menzano said. “It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one that I will always remember. I was lucky enough to have won my first game, making me a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion. Sadly, I lost my second game, but it was a blast to have appeared on ‘Jeopardy!’ for two nights in a row.” He also noted that he was able to mention Gallaudet on the show.