Claudia L. Gordon

Last updated

Claudia Gordon
Claudia Gordon.JPG
BornMarch 1972 (age 52)
St. Mary, Jamaica
Education Howard University (BA)
American University (JD)

Claudia L. Gordon (born March 1972) is the first deaf Black female attorney in the United States and the first deaf graduate of American University's law school. [1] She currently serves as Chair of the National Council on Disability as well as Senior Accessibility Strategy Partner at T-Mobile within its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. [2] Prior to joining the telecom industry, Gordon held various roles in the public sector from 2002 to 2017—most notably as the associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, where she advised White House offices and senior officials including former President Barack Obama on disability issues. This political appointment made Gordon the first deaf person to work at the White House in a detailee capacity. [3] [4]

Contents

Early life

Gordon was born in St. Mary, Jamaica in March 1972. [5] [ failed verification ]

She suddenly lost her sense of hearing at the age of eight. At the time, she was in the care of her aunt Mildred Taylor, a teacher. She took her to a clinic and healers, to no avail. The clinic nurse couldn't diagnose the pain in Gordon's middle ears, nor could the healers restore her hearing. Her family was then forced to take her out of primary school for almost two years since her school couldn't accommodate her needs as a deaf student. She was kept at home to do chores instead.

When Gordon was eleven, she emigrated to the United States and reunited with her mother, who was living in South Bronx, New York. [6] [7] [5] [8]

Education

When she was eleven, Gordon attended a public school before enrolling at the Lexington School and Center for the Deaf in New York. At Lexington, she learned sign language for the first time and became the valedictorian of her junior and senior high school graduating classes. She was also active in sports, student organizations, and community activities. One of these activities is the mock trial sponsored by the American Bar Association. For three years, Gordon was a member of the only deaf mock trial team in New York and the only deaf high school to ever win the competition. [3] [8]

It was in high school when Gordon knew she wanted to be a lawyer, with the discrimination she experienced in Jamaica as her inspiration. [9]

"By my junior year in high school, I made it known to all that I would go to law school and become an attorney. Many shrugged off my grand intention as wishful thinking. Some cited my deafness as an obstacle rendering it impractical if not impossible to pursue a law degree. Thanks to the values that were instilled in me during my formative years, I understood then that those voices of doubt neither dictated my worth nor my capacity. I want to contribute to a better society where there is more understanding and acceptance of people with disabilities and where the same opportunities are provided for all."- Gordon, Obama White House, 30 August 2010 [5]

In 1995, Gordon graduated with honors from Howard University. Along with her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, she also earned a spot in The Patricia Roberts Harris Public Affairs Fellowship, Golden Key National Honor Society, and Political Science Honor Society.

In 2000, Gordon became the first deaf student to graduate from the American University, Washington College of Law. She was one of the only approximately fifty qualified deaf lawyers in the U.S. and Canada back then. [10] While at WCL, she bagged the Myers Law Scholarship twice as well as the  J. Franklin Bourne Scholarship. [11]

Career

2000 - 2003: Non-profit organization

After law school, Gordon was awarded a two-year fellowship with Skadden Fellowship Foundation. With her fellowship project sponsored by the National Association of the Deaf, she "provided direct representation and advocacy for poor deaf persons, with a particular emphasis placed on outreach to members of minority groups". [12]

2002 - 2017: Government agencies

Gordon's career in the public sector started with the National Council on Disability, where she was a consulting attorney. After a year in service, she was appointed as an attorney advisor and later promoted to senior policy advisor for the United States Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. She was instrumental in drafting and implementing  an executive order on Individuals with Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness. [13]

Notably, Gordon was deployed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 where she served as the disability and elderly  populations' civil rights subject matter expert at the Joint Field Office (JFO). While there she developed and executed technical assistance and training to JFO staff and coordinate resolutions of discrimination and accessibility issues. [14]

Gordon became a member of the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2017. During the Presidency of Barack Obama, she served as the Special Assistant and subsequently as the Chief of Staff to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Director in the United States Department of Labor. She was also the associate director at the White House Office of Public Engagement. [15]

Gordon was part of the Presidential Delegation of Barack Obama sent to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Paralympics. [16]

2017 - present: Private sector and National Council on Disability

Before joining T-Mobile to lead strategies for disability-inclusive culture and accessible work environment, [17] Gordon was a Senior Manager of Government and Compliance at Sprint. [18]

On November 17, 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Gordon to the National Council on Disability. During her time at NCD, Gordon was designated by Chairman Andrés J. Gallegos, Esq as Vice Chair and served on NCD’s Executive Committee. After Gallegos passed away on December 1st, 2023 and Gordon became Acting-Chair. Gordon became Chair of the Council on April 9, 2024. [19]

Awards & Recognitions

Advocacy

Gordon has been active in both the black deaf community and the cross disability community. She was the national vice president of the National Black Deaf Advocates from 2002 to 2005. [27] She has served on multiple boards, including American Association of People with Disabilities [28] and Gallaudet University. [29]

Current Board Memberships

Gordon is a member of organizations, such as the Alpha chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority [35]

Public Speaking

Gordon is a public speaker on a broad range of topics primarily pertaining to disability civil rights law, non-discrimination and equal access; grassroots leadership and advocacy; and disability, youth and women empowerment. Gordon shared her ongoing quest to create spaces in society for seldom-heard voices in her TEDx Talk: Owning Otherness. [36]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlee Matlin</span> American actress (born 1965)

Marlee Matlin is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I. King Jordan</span> First deaf president of Gallaudet University

Irving King Jordan is an American educator who became the first deaf president of Gallaudet University in 1988 after the Deaf President Now protest. Gallaudet is the world's only university with all programs and services designed specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deaf President Now</span> 1988 student protest at Gallaudet University

Deaf President Now (DPN) was a student protest in March 1988 at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. The protest began on March 6, 1988, when the Board of Trustees announced its decision to appoint a hearing candidate, Elizabeth Zinser, over the other Deaf candidates, Irving King Jordan and Harvey Corson, as its seventh president.

The history of deaf people and deaf culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is a culture that is centered on sign language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. While deafness is often included within the umbrella of disability, many view the Deaf community as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is an organization for the promotion of the rights of deaf people in the United States. NAD was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880 as a non-profit organization run by Deaf people to advocate for deaf rights, its first president being Robert P. McGregor of Ohio. It includes associations from all 50 states and Washington, DC, and is the US member of the World Federation of the Deaf, which has over 120 national associations of Deaf people as members. It has its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Young Woo Kang was a disability rights advocate, author, and speaker. He was known for his work in developing a braille alphabet for the Korean language. He was the Vice Chair of the World Committee on Disability. Kang was a former policy advisor of the National Council on Disability to the United States White House, serving under former president George W. Bush. In 2001, Kang received the Asian American Society's Outstanding Contribution and Achievement Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory B. Craig</span> American attorney

Gregory Bestor Craig is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2010. A former attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly, Craig has represented numerous high-profile clients. Prior to becoming White House Counsel, he served as assistant to the President and special counsel in the White House of President Bill Clinton, where he directed the team defending Clinton against impeachment. Craig also served as a senior advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy and to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerie Jarrett</span> American businesswoman and former government official (born 1956)

Valerie June Jarrett is an American businesswoman and former government official, who has been the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation since 2021. She was the longest-serving senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama. She was assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, overseeing the office of the same name, and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Before that, she was the chief executive officer of The Habitat Company and a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project.

Ari Daniel Ne'eman is an American disability rights activist and researcher who co-founded the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in 2006. On December 16, 2009, President Barack Obama announced that Ne'eman would be appointed to the National Council on Disability. After an anonymous hold was lifted, Ne'eman was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on the Council on June 22, 2010. He chaired the council's Policy & Program Evaluation Committee making him the first autistic person to serve on the council. In 2015, Ne'eman left the National Council on Disability at the end of his second term. He currently serves as a consultant to the American Civil Liberties Union. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Policy and Management of Harvard University.

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is an American non-profit organization which advocates for the legal rights of people with disabilities, based in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senior Advisor to the President of the United States</span>

Senior Advisor to the President is a title used by high-ranking political advisors to the president of the United States. White House senior advisors are senior members of the White House Office. The title has been formally used since 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deaf rights movement</span>

The Deaf rights movement encompasses a series of social movements within the disability rights and cultural diversity movements that encourages deaf and hard of hearing to push society to adopt a position of equal respect for them. Acknowledging that those who were Deaf or hard of hearing had rights to obtain the same things as those hearing lead this movement. Establishing an educational system to teach those with Deafness was one of the first accomplishments of this movement. Sign language, as well as cochlear implants, has also had an extensive impact on the Deaf community. These have all been aspects that have paved the way for those with Deafness, which began with the Deaf Rights movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Braam Jordaan</span> South African author and film producer

Braam Jordaan is a South African entrepreneur, filmmaker, animator, and activist. He is an advocate for Sign Language and human rights of Deaf people, and a board member of the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section. In 2009, Jordaan collaborated with the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf and Marblemedia on the first children's animated dictionary of American Sign Language, which allows deaf children to look up words in their own primary language of ASL along with the English counterpart. The dictionary allows both deaf children and their hearing parents to learn sign language together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haben Girma</span> Eritrean-American disability rights advocate

Haben Girma is an American disability rights advocate, and the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Cokley</span> American disability rights activist

Rebecca A. Hare Cokley is an American disability rights activist and public speaker who is currently the first U.S. Disability Rights Program Officer for the Ford Foundation. Prior to joining Ford, Cokley was the founding director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. During the Obama administration, Cokley served as the executive director of the National Council on Disability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angeline Fuller Fischer</span> Deaf American writer

Angeline Fuller Fischer was an American writer. She is considered one of the earliest deaf feminists due to her advocacy for the equal education of deaf women. Her poems and articles were published in publications across the United States; in 1908 the newspaper The Silent Worker called Fischer "one of America's great deaf poets".

Kathleen L. "Kat" Brockway is an American author, historian, and deaf rights activist.

Melissa Malzkuhn is an American deaf advocate and founder of the Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University. She was a 2018 Obama Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meredith Peruzzi</span> American historian and Director of the National Deaf Life Museum

Meredith Peruzzi is an American historian and Director of the National Deaf Life Museum (NDLM) in Washington D. C.

References

  1. ↑ "National Association of the Deaf - NAD". www.nad.org. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  2. ↑ "Employee Spotlight: Disability Awareness Starts with All of Us — and Benefits All of Us ‑ T‑Mobile Newsroom". T-Mobile Newsroom. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Diversity Within Adversity". Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  4. ↑ "Black History Month - Claudia Gordon". The Center for Learner Equity. 14 February 2022. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "Meet the Women of the Administration: Claudia Gordon". whitehouse.gov. 30 August 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  6. ↑ "Claudia Gordon: America's First Deaf Black Woman Lawyer is Jamaican Born". CNW Network. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  7. ↑ "Deaf Person of the Month". www.deaf people.com. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Deaf People: Tell Me More" featuring Claudia Gordon [cc], 26 February 2014, retrieved 16 April 2022
  9. ↑ "The deaf women in Obama's White House". BBC News. 5 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  10. ↑ "Claudia Gordon: 1st African American Female Deaf Lawyer". Black Mail Blog. 2 August 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  11. ↑ "NCD Applauds Appointment of Claudia Gordon as Public Engagement Advisor at the White House". ncd.gov. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  12. ↑ "Skadden Fellows | Skadden Fellowship Foundation". www.skaddenfellowships.org. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  13. ↑ "Claudia L. Gordon, Esq". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  14. 1 2 "Disability Rights Campaigner, Claudia Gordon, joins DeafKidz International as Global Ambassador". DeafKidz International. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  15. ↑ "Trustee Appointed to White House Office of Public Engagement". Gallaudet University. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  16. ↑ "President Obama Announces Presidential Delegation to Attend the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Summer Games". whitehouse.gov. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  17. ↑ "Claudia Gordon". ADCOLOR Everywhere. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  18. ↑ wpowell (11 September 2018). "Claudia Gordon". U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  19. ↑ "National Council on Disability | NCD announces new Chair Claudia L. Gordon".
  20. ↑ "Previous AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award Recipients". AAPD. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  21. ↑ "| U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". www.eeoc.gov. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  22. ↑ Naturale, Joan. "InfoGuides: SOCI 240 Deaf Culture: Popular Magazines". infoguides.rit.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  23. ↑ "Kendall Award". Gallaudet University. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  24. ↑ "The Root 100 – 2014". The Root. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  25. ↑ "Google Paints Stunning Portraits of Disability Rights Heroes on Washington, D.C. Steps". Posterscope. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  26. ↑ "National Disability Mentoring Coalition (NDMC)". National Disability Mentoring Coalition (NDMC). Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  27. ↑ "Claudia Gordon's Appointment as Public Engagement Advisor at the White House | News". www.nbda.org. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  28. ↑ Robichaud, Trish (2 December 2013). "AAPD Applauds Appointment of Claudia Gordon as Public Engagement Advisor at the White House". Changing Paces. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  29. ↑ "Claudia L. Gordon, Esq. - Gallaudet University". 6 June 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  30. ↑ "Board of Directors". ACLU of DC. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  31. ↑ "Centene Diversity & Inclusion | People With Disabilities". Centene. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  32. ↑ "CDT Project on Disability Rights & Algorithmic Fairness – Advisory Committee". Center for Democracy and Technology. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  33. ↑ "Claudia Gordon, Esq. – Flexability". www.flexability.com. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  34. ↑ "Lexington School Board of Trustees". www.lexnyc.org. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  35. ↑ "Meet Claudia Gordon | Hands UP". sites.gsu.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  36. ↑ Owning Otherness | Claudia Gordon | TEDxUniversityofRochester, 24 July 2018, retrieved 16 April 2022
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.