Roberta Cordano | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 11th President of Gallaudet University | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2016 | |
| Preceded by | T. Alan Hurwitz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 29,1963 |
Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano (born November 29,1963) [1] is the 11th president of Gallaudet University. [2] [3] Cordano is the first deaf woman and the first openly LGBT person to become president of Gallaudet University;she is openly lesbian. [4]
Cordano obtained her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Wisconsin,Madison in 1990. She was assistant attorney general for Minnesota. [5] She was assistant dean at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. [6] [7]
Cordano was awarded the Hubert Humphrey award by the University of Wisconsin. [8] She is among the first ten deaf women in the United States to have earned a Juris Doctor (JD) degree and is among the first 50 deaf women to have earned a doctoral degree,overall. [9]
Cordano is the first deaf woman to become president of Gallaudet University. Elisabeth Zinser,a hearing woman,held the Gallaudet presidency for less than one week amidst the March 1988 Deaf President Now protests. Zinser was never officially installed as president before her resignation. [10]
Gallaudet University is a private federally chartered university in Washington,D.C.,for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school for the advanced education of the deaf and hard of hearing in the world and remains the only higher education institution in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. Hearing students are admitted to the graduate school and a small number are also admitted as undergraduates each year. The university was named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,a notable figure in the advancement of deaf education.
Muriel Fay Humphrey Brown was an American politician who served as the second lady of the United States from 1965 to 1969,and as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1978. She was married to the 38th vice president of the United States,Hubert Humphrey. Following her husband's death,she was appointed to his seat in the United States Senate,serving for most of the year 1978,thus becoming the first woman to serve as a senator from Minnesota,and the only Second Lady of the United States to hold public office. After leaving office,she remarried and took the name Muriel Humphrey Brown.
Roberta Achtenberg is an American attorney and civil rights advocate who served as a commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She was previously assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,becoming the first openly lesbian or gay public official in the United States whose appointment to a federal position was confirmed by the United States Senate. This confirmation hearing garnered a lot of publicity,opposition,and support.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell,he co-founded the first permanent institution for the education of the deaf in North America,and he became its first principal. When opened on April 15,1817,it was called the "Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons," but it is now known as the American School for the Deaf.
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 Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota,a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul,Minnesota. It is named after Hubert H. Humphrey,former Vice President of the United States and presidential candidate. The school is located on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota,which is also home to the University of Minnesota Law School and Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis. The Humphrey School is accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy,Affairs,and Administration (NASPAA).
T. Alan Hurwitz is an American educator who served as the tenth President of Gallaudet University from 2010 to 2015. He is the first person born deaf,and first Jew,to hold this position. Previously,he served as President of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Vice President and Dean of Rochester Institute of Technology. He served in a variety of other roles for most of NTID's 40-year history.
Elisabeth Ann Zinser is a retired university president,most recently at Southern Oregon University (2001–06) in Ashland,Oregon. Previously she was the chancellor of the Lexington campus of the University of Kentucky (1995–2001),and the first female president of the University of Idaho,serving from 1989–95 in Moscow,Idaho.
Victoria Kolakowski is an American lawyer who serves as a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court since January 2011. Kolakowski is the first openly transgender person to serve as a trial court judge of general jurisdiction in the United States,the first elected to a judgeship,and the first to serve as any type of judge in California..
The history of deaf education in the United States began in the early 1800s when the Cobbs School of Virginia,an oral school,was established by William Bolling and John Braidwood,and the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb,a manual school,was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. When the Cobbs School closed in 1816,the manual method,which used American Sign Language,became commonplace in deaf schools for most of the remainder of the century. In the late 1800s,schools began to use the oral method,which only allowed the use of speech,as opposed to the manual method previously in place. Students caught using sign language in oral programs were often punished. The oral method was used for many years until sign language instruction gradually began to come back into deaf education.
Helen Constance White was an American academic who was a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. White twice served as the English department chair and was the first woman to become a full professor in the university's College of Letters and Science. She was also the first woman elected president of the American Association of University Professors,and a president of the American Association of University Women (AAUW),University of Wisconsin Teachers' Union,and University Club. White wrote six novels and numerous nonfiction books and articles.
Patsy Lynch is an American photographer. Her work documents GLBT civil rights advocacy.
Regina Olson Hughes (1895–1993) was an American scientific illustrator in Botanical Art. Born February 1,1895,in Herman,Nebraska,she became fascinated with the world of plants and flowers. Her parents were Gilbert and Johanna (Sullivan) Olson. At age 10,she contracted scarlet fever and her hearing slowly diminished until she became fully deaf at age 14. In order for her to communicate with her peers,she relied on lip reading and written notes for business work. Hughes retained her speech skills and continued to speak fluently throughout her adulthood. She became proficient in American Sign Language when she enrolled in Gallaudet University.
Ruth Mae Taubert Seeger was an American athlete and coach. She was the first woman to be chosen for the United States track and field team for the 1957 World Games for the Deaf.
John Stanley Schuchman was an American educator and academic administrator who taught at Gallaudet University.
Agatha Tiegel Hanson was the second woman to graduate from the National Deaf-Mute College in 1893 and the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Arts from the school. She worked as an educator for deaf students and advocated for the deaf community throughout her life. Hanson also wrote poetry and edited a newspaper for the deaf.
Gertrude Scott Galloway was an American educator and administrator working with deaf children. She was the first female president of the National Association of the Deaf. She is among the first deaf women to head a school for the deaf in the United States. Galloway was an advocate for deaf women throughout her life.
Petra Fandrem Howard was an American deaf labor advocate. Hard of hearing from a young age,she was the first employee in the Minnesota Labor Bureau for the Deaf,created to support deaf workers and encourage employers to hire the deaf. Howard worked in vocational rehabilitation for the deaf for over forty years.
Nellie Jane Norman was a deaf performer,director,professor,and curator,recognized for her work on the faculty of Gallaudet University. She actively promoted deaf culture,language,and art through her contributions to teaching,TV programs,and film festivals. In 2007,she founded the National Deaf Life Museum at Gallaudet.
Elizabeth Peet was an American educator of the deaf who taught at Gallaudet University for more than fifty years. Born to a deaf mother and a hearing father,Peet learned American Sign Language at an early age,and was a scholar in the history and etymology of ASL signs. She was described by U.S. Representative George P. Miller in 1950 as "a tiny lady who is considered the world's leading authority on sign language."
| External media | |
|---|---|
| Audio | |
 Gallaudet President Navigates From World Of Hearing To Sound Leadership Of The Deaf, NPR, January 21, 2017 | |
| WMAU Radio Interview of Gallaudet University's President Roberta Cordano, 11/21/2016 | |
| Video | |
 Gallaudet President Cordano lectures at UW Linguistics/ASL, University of Washington, Jan 12, 2018 |
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