Lynne Barnes - Keynote presenter

Lynne is a principal lecturer in Deaf Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston, England, where she is based in the Department of Education and Social Science. Lynne co-ordinates the Deaf Studies team, and also works part-time for Student Services as Adviser for Deaf Students. Lynne studied History at the University Of Warwick, before embarking on a teaching career, including becoming a Teacher of the Deaf in 1988. She then went on to support deaf students in Coventry and Sheffield before returning to her home town of Preston, to set up the degree of Deaf Studies in 1993. Her research interests lie in issues of access to higher education for deaf students. She is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Deafness and Education International.

Jacqueline is an RID Certified Interpreter and holds a B.A. in Public Health and Deaf Studies. She has been in the interpreting field for over 10 years practicing in a variety of settings and locations in the U.S. She has been involved specifically with video interpreting for 4 years and is the Training Director for Hands On Video Relay Service (HOVRS), based in California. Jacqueline has developed curriculum and presented domestically and internationally on video interpreting and is involved with VRS/VRI projects and trainings worldwide.

Jen Dodds - Keynote presenter

Jen has worked as a journalist/editor for many years, with publications such as British Deaf News, Read Hear, The Voice, Deaf Arts UK, and as associate editor of Deaf Worlds: International Journal of Deaf Studies. After working as a research assistant at University of Central Lancashire, UK, researching Deafness and exclusion in FE and employment, Jen now works as a language tutor with Deaf students. She has also written/edited several websites, contributed to Deaf Identities (2003) and is particularly interested in Deaf politics and BSL/English translation issues. She has a first degree in Media Production.

Steve Gibson - Seminar presenter

Steve has various jobs at present, working mainly on his business, DeafEducate, developing eBooks for Deaf people. He supports deaf students at Sheffield Hallam University, University of Leeds and Middlesex University in computing and mathematics. He also teaches basic literacy and numeracy skills at City College Manchester.

He graduated at University of Liverpool in the field of computing in 1979 and embarked on a programming career with British Gas. He left to become a computing and numeracy tutor at Doncaster College for the Deaf in 1989. There he was the course leader for the BTEC National Diploma in Information Technology Applications and he experienced the difficulties deaf students had in accessing textbooks.

In his business, DeafEducate, he is working on developing eBooks for Deaf people so that text and BSL can be seen simultaneously and thus promoting bilingualism. He plans to release his first books commercially in January 2005.

Claire Haddon - Keynote presenter

Claire is a registered qualified BSL/English Interpreter, and currently works at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, both as an interpreter and as a language tutor with Deaf students. Claire took a degree in Experimental Psychology at Somerville College, Oxford, before deciding to pursue a career in interpreting, completing a Postgraduate Diploma in BSL/English Interpreting in July 2004, now specialising in Higher Education. She recently co-authored (with Kyra Pollitt) a chapter on telephone interpreting, due to feature in the forthcoming book, Advances in Teaching Sign Language Interpreters, by Cynthia Roy (ed) 2005.

Nickson Ochieng Kakiri - Seminar presenter

Nickson, who is a Deaf Kenyan, is a senior majoring in Government with a focus in international development at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC. Before beginning his studies in the U.S., Nickson graduated from Kuja Special High School for the Deaf in eastern Kenya. Facing discrimination in the employment field, he joined the South Nyanza Association of the Deaf, a branch of the Kenya National Deaf Association, and served as Secretary General from 1995.

He also worked as trainer of volunteer teachers of Deaf children with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in Kenya. Kakiri co-founded and established the Global Deaf Connection (formally called the East African Deaf Connection). He founded his own tour company called Deaf Safaris, Ltd., to provide opportunities for Deaf and hard of hearing tourists visiting Kenya. He is the first recipient of the World Deaf Leadership Scholars Fund from the Nippon Foundation which covers college expenses including the cost of internships related to achieving a degree.

Ben Karlin - Seminar presenter

Ben began working as a community interpreter in 1987, focusing on educational and workplace settings. Since 1997 he has been at St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, a forensic mental health facility of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. In that role he has trained and mentored numerous interpreters as they prepare to work in mental health settings. He is licensed by the State of Missouri and holds comprehensive state certification.

Ben co-authored a paper presented at the first Supporting Deaf People online conference, and, among other venues, at the First and Second World Conferences on Mental Health and Deafness. His current research is in analysis of the quality of interaction between Deaf patients with interpreters and hearing patients in group therapy.

Stephanie Jo Kent - Seminar presenter

Steph, who has an M.Ed, is a certified interpreter, and has been interpreting in the U.S. for over a decade. She has an Associate's degree in ASL Studies, a BS in Interpreting, and earned a Master's degree in social justice education in 1996. Steph is now working on a doctorate in communication, focusing on group dynamics and group discourses.

Steph has worked at two residential deaf schools, was a member of the planning team for the Allies conferences from 1997-1999, and has presented at the state, national and international levels on interpreting practices and intergroup relations. Her research focuses on recognizing and working with problematic dynamics that occur among individuals in groups and between people of different cultural groups. She also hopes to identify patterns in ways people talk about certain dynamics as part of larger discourses about difference.

Hilary McColl - Workshop facilitator

Hilary McColl taught French and English in mainstream schools in England, France and Scotland before being seconded as Scottish National Curriculum Development Officer in 1994 to examine how pupils with special educational needs were being catered for in Modern Languages. The resulting compendium of advice to schools included a section on teaching hearing impaired students. Hilary's increasing deafness led her to give up language teaching in 1996.

Now working as an independent trainer, consultant and writer, she has particular interest in bringing together teachers who specialise in modern languages and those who specialise in supporting learners, believing that collaborative working is the best way to ensure viable modern language programmes for learners with special educational needs. She is registered as a training provider by GTC Scotland. Hilary is currently preparing on a website dedicated to support for learning in modern languages which should be ready to go online in the spring of 2005: www.hilarymccoll.co.uk

Marc Marschark - Keynote presenter

Marc Marschark, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Research at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and in the Psychology Department at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the editor of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education.

He co-edits the new Perspectives on Deafness series from Oxford University Press (with Patricia Spencer). Most of his research concerns relations between language and learning, with a special emphasis on linguistic and nonlinguistic components of language comprehension.

Wendy Martin - Seminar presenter

Wendy works as a tutor for Signing students in a British further education college for young people and adults aged 16 years and over. She also tutors courses in language and literacy for the Open University.

Her academic background is in linguistics. Her PhD thesis examined how young (hearing) children used language to create and sustain their pretend play. Later, as part of her studies to become a qualified teacher of deaf children, she carried out a short study of Signing children's pretend play.

Wendy is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between language and learning, and how these ideas relate to the needs of deaf learners. She is keen to discuss these ideas with other conference members.

Kath Mowe - Keyote presenter

Kath took a degree in Deaf Studies and Education Studies at University of Central Lancashire, UK, graduating in 1999. She subsequently qualified as BSL/English Interpreter by undertaking a post graduate diploma. At present, she specialises in higher educational interpreting and works as a full-time member of the UCLan interpreting team. She has also worked for several years, in a freelance capacity, as a language tutor with deaf students wherein she developed an interest in translation issues particular to this field.

Dr. Jemina Napier - Keynote presenter

Jemina has 15 years experience of interpreting and an MA in BSL/ English Interpreting from Durham University in the UK. While working as a BSL/ English interpreter she specialized in mental health, conference, media and educational interpreting. She coordinated the Sign Language Interpreters Training Course at the City Literary Institute in London for two years, before moving to Sydney, Australia in 1998. Since that time Jemina has become accredited as an Auslan/English Interpreter, and is now an examiner with the National Authority for the Accreditation of Translators and Interpreters.

In 2001 she completed her PhD thesis looking at linguistic coping strategies of sign language interpreters, which has been published by the Forest Bookshop in the UK. Jemina continues to work as an interpreter in either BSL, Auslan or International Sign, although most of her time is spent lecturing and on research. She now co-ordinates the Postgraduate Diploma in Auslan/ English Interpreting at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia, and was recently awarded a research fellowship, which will investigate Auslan interpreting and comprehensibility. She has published several articles and book chapters discussing the interpreter role, interpreting strategies and teaching of interpreters.

Rachel O'Neill - Seminar presenter

Rachel has an M.Lang and is a tutor at City College Manchester, which is a large further education college in Manchester, England. She teaches English to Deaf students using BSL and provides language tutorials to a wide range of deaf students at the college. She is also part of a Deaf/hearing training team which trains Communication Support Workers, note-takers and Deaf tutors working in adult and further education. Her interests include BSL college subject vocabulary, bilingual teaching methods in literacy courses and language modification. She has written guidelines for tutors of deaf literacy/numeracy students for the Department for Education and Skills, discussed roles of staff working with deaf students in Further Education and investigated student views of different types of notetaking support.

Kyra Pollitt - Keynote presenter

Kyra is a senior lecturer on the post-graduate Diploma in BSL/English Interpreting at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England. She is also Senior Interpreter based within the Specialised Learning Resources Unit of the same university. In this capacity she has responsibility for monitoring, training and mentoring a team of nine academic interpreters, as well as continuing her own interpreting practice.

Kyra qualified as an interpreter in 1990 and has since worked in many domains. For the last nine years, she has applied her experience to the teaching of novice interpreters on a number of courses and in a number of institutions in the UK, notably the MA in BSL/English interpreting at Durham University where she held the position of Interpreting Fellow. Kyra has presented at a number of national and international conferences, and her writings on interpreting have been published in a number of arenas. Kyra is currently focussing on persuading new interpreters into print, and her most recent effort, co-authored with Claire Haddon, appears in the forthcoming Advances in Teaching Sign Language Interpreters (Roy, C.[ed.] Gallaudet University Press).

Anne Potter - Seminar presenter

Anne is the Director of the Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro, Vermont, (K-12, residential) and also of the statewide American Sign Language Program. Anne has a BA in English, an MA in Deaf Studies, and a PhD in ASL Literacy. She is also a certified ASLTA member and evaluator. In addition to her administrative duties, Anne regularly presents workshops and teaches classes in ASL, Deaf Studies, and ASL storytelling. For the past four years, she has co-taught a course on Intercultural Training at the School for International Training.

Patty Sapere - Keynote presenter

Patty is an RID Certified Interpreter, B.S. in Business Administration, and a practicing interpreter for 20 years. She spent the past 10 years as the coordinator of professional development and in-service training in the Department of Interpreting Services at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, New York, and was special assistant to the Dean of NTID for two of those years. As co-author on the grant "Access to Technical Education through Sign Language Interpreting", Patty currently is research associate on the project, housed in the NTID Department of Research.

Alemayehu Teferi - Seminar presenter

Alemayehu was born hearing in western Ethiopia. One of 9 children, he lost his hearing aged 15 due to meningitis. After his illness, and with some trepidation, he went to a hearing school in Addis Ababa where he got outstanding grades, completed high school and joined university to earn a first degree in economics.

During his holidays from university he met deaf people and slowly he learned sign language and registered with the Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf (ENAD). In 1996 he was elected as chairman of ENAD and I has been re-elected three times since. He is also the President of Ethiopian Federation of Persons with Disabilities (EFPD).
Since graduating from university he works for the Central Statistical Authority, a government organisation.

Dr. Amy Wilson - Seminar presenter

Amy is an assistant professor who teaches International Development with People with Disabilities in Developing Countries, Introduction to International Development, as well as research to deaf and hearing students at the graduate level at Gallaudet University. She began her teaching career in 1979, teaching the sciences to deaf and hard of hearing students in a mainstreamed public high school in suburban Chicago. After 12 years, she then spent several years as a volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee in northeast Brazil where she did teacher training and community development work with Deaf communities in rural areas.

Inspired by her work in Brazil, she returned to the U.S. where she earned her Ph.D. at Gallaudet University's Department of Education (2001), focusing on curriculum development with an added specialization in International Development from coursework completed at American University. In the area of deafness, Dr. Wilson is interested in researching how to empower deaf people in developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, and South America.