Objective
Challenging entry-level position in the international development field that would enable me to use my training in design, implementation, and evaluation of projects that improve the lives of citizens in developing countries, with a particular focus on communities of people with disabilities.

My Master of Social Work (MSW) degree program included content on community development work; the design, implementation, and evaluation of social programs, projects, and policies; and a basic understanding of quantitative and qualitative research. I have taken additional graduate-level courses in international development and have independently studied related topics.

Experience
Writer, World Institute on Disability, Oakland, Calif., research and write articles on free-lance basis for on-line publications including Proyecto Visión (2003-present)

Editor/Writer/Assistant, Inter-American Institute on Disability, Washington, D.C., edit and write articles for on-line publications; publications include Proyecto Visión and Disability World (2002-2003)

English Tutor/Writing Advisor/Trainer/Group Tutor, Gallaudet University, English Works! Department, Washington, D.C., worked as a team with two others to teach a class of nine undergraduate students in remedial reading skills, grammar, and writing; developed educational materials for class and also for the English Works! web site (2002)

Adjunct Instructor, Gallaudet University, Social Work Department, Washington, D.C., taught undergraduate courses in human diversity and introductory social work; curriculum included content on people with disabilities and a basic overview of community work and policy issues (2001-2002)

Gallaudet University, Social Work Department, was liaison for five graduate student interns in school social work; based on weekly logs written by interns, gave feedback on their work with individual and group clients and on their work at the macro/community level; evaluated their professional growth as social workers (2001-2002)

Writing Advisor/Tutor, Gallaudet University, English Works! Department, tutored students in writing skills and developed educational materials (2000-2001)

San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America, internship. Worked with local NGO dedicated to organizing and representing local deaf community and with local school for deaf children. Taught six-day seminar for 16 deaf adults on leadership, teamwork, and conflict resolution skills; developed curriculum and wrote handouts for seminar in consultation with local deaf community members; worked with local community members to organize and recruit participants for seminar. Worked at a local school for deaf students with a group of eight deaf children ages 11 to 14 to improve self-esteem and leadership abilities; prepared a local deaf university student in education to continue teaching leadership-training activities with these deaf children after my departure. Identified local internship opportunities for future interns in Costa Rica (Spring 2000)

Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., co-facilitated a group of new freshmen at Gallaudet to discuss and resolve common problems and concerns (Fall 1999)

Miner Elementary School, Washington, D.C., internship; gave play therapy to two individual clients and led two self-esteem groups for hard of hearing children aged 5 to 8; interviewed parents and teachers as needed to better understand clients' backgrounds and their social and psychological needs and strengths; attended Individual Education Plan meetings for clients; wrote detailed psychosocial history on a client with recommendations for needed evaluations and interventions (1998-1999)

Center for Global Education, Gallaudet University, internship, gathered information about status of deaf communities around the world by reviewing Center on Global Education correspondence files of letters, needs assessment reports, and other documents from dozens of countries; wrote partial summary of findings (Summer 1998)

Deaf Unit, Child and Family Service Division, Department of Human Services, Washington, D.C., internship; worked with individuals and families to identify needs and match them with available resources; taught parenting classes; advocated for needs of deaf clients within the system; was able to successfully calm angry or agitated clients as needed (1997-1998)

Child-Centered Play Therapy class and supervision, through the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement in Bethesda, Md., learned how to provide play therapy to children (1998)

National Coalition Building Institute, Gallaudet University chapter, co-led diversity training workshops for students, staff, and faculty at Gallaudet University (1994-1997)

Writer, Gallaudet University, Department of Publications and Production, wrote hundreds of news and feature articles on deadline for three different publications; writing these articles frequently required extensive research with printed and on-line materials, phone and e-mail contacts, and face-to-face interviewing; copyedited and proofread various booklets, brochures, and other materials for grammar, spelling, and stylistic consistency (1992-1997)

Other Experience
Established and maintain deafintl, an e-mail discussion list for deaf adults in developing nations and their advocates; deafintl has enabled more than 200 participants from more than 30 developed and developing countries to exchange news, information, resources, ideas, and advice related to the social, political, educational, and economic development of deaf individuals and communities in developing nations (1998-present)

Established International Deaf Education and Advancement Fund (I-DEAF) at Gallaudet University; raised $10,000 for endowed fund in the first year; I-DEAF now grants scholarships to two students from developing countries each year (1991-present)

Developing Web Site on Disability Issues in the International Development field; am currently developing organization and format for a dynamic database of URLs and other resources related to disability issues in economic, social, educational, and political development in developing nations; have gathered hundreds of URLs to which the future site will provide links; am in the process of recruiting beta-testers for feedback on accessibility, concept, content, organization, and appearance of the site (2002-present)

Co-founder and co-leader, Caption Action, non-official nationwide advocacy organization for closed-captions on videotapes enabling access for deaf and hard of hearing viewers; recruited more than 1,000 volunteers to collect more than 60,000 petition signatures in support of captions from every state in the United States and every province in Canada; initiated letter-writing campaign resulting in hundreds of personally-written letters; persuaded Disney and other major and minor videotape companies to caption more videos for deaf and hard of hearing consumers (1989-1992)

Wrote preliminary proposal for exhibit on deaf community of United States, 1989; accepted by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute after development by Gallaudet personnel, 1992; exhibition, entitled "History Through Deaf Eyes," began touring across country March 2001 and is scheduled in various locations through 2005

Skills
Fluent in American Sign Language

Working knowledge of written Spanish

Working knowledge of Lengua de Senas de Costa Rica (LESCO) (Costa Rican Sign Language)

Excellent writing skills with ability to target diverse audiences

Public speaking

Training groups in deaf awareness, leadership skills, prejudice reduction, and other topics

Educational Degrees
Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., Masters of Social Work, May 2000 (1996-2000)

Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., Bachelor of Arts, May 1992, summa cum laude, University Honors, Honors in English (1989-1992)

Other Educational History
Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., graduate level course in Community Development With People with Disabilities in Developing Countries (Fall 2002)

University of California at Berkeley (1988-89)

Maintained graduate and undergraduate grade point average above 3.8 on a 4.0 scale every semester

Awards and Honors
All USA College Academic Team, USA Today (1991)

Graduate Student Achievement Award, Gallaudet University, for "an outstanding graduate student who has made a significant contribution to the field of Social Work" (1999)

Catherine H. Moses Award, Department of Social Work, Gallaudet University, for "leadership, outstanding potential, and contributions to the social work practice" (1999)

Youth Achievement Award, National Council on Communicative Disorders (1991)

Selected as one of two student speakers for high school graduation at Newton North High School, Newton, Mass. (1988)

Recognition Certificate from the Caption Center for establishing Caption Action (1991)

Presentations
Participated in round table discussion entitled "Speaking with Students from the Global South" at Global Social Change Philanthropy Conference sponsored by Grantmakers Without Borders; shared experiences establishing deafintl listserver and I-DEAF scholarship and observations of deaf community in Costa Rica (November 2002)

Co-presented session on establishing internships in Costa Rica and running an e-mail discussion list for deaf leaders at International Leadership Association annual conference (November 2001)

Co-presented "Eye Contact: Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing Clients in the Writing Center" with other English Works! staff at National Writing Centers Association Conference (November 2000)

Presented about experiences working with the Costa Rican deaf community at Gallaudet Social Work Department Annual Awards Luncheon (May 2000)

Presented paper entitled "Langston Hughes: A 'Simple' View of the World" at Annual Convention of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association (March 1992)

Panelist, National Education for Women's Leadership Program at State University of New Jersey/Rutgers (June 1991)

Presented workshop on published novel Flute Song Magic at Children's Literature Conference, Western Montana College (June 1991)

Have made dozens of presentations on deafness, adaptive technology used by deaf people, sign language, deaf culture, and the deaf community; audiences have included elementary school classrooms, groups of parents and teachers of deaf children, a church group, a boy scouts troop, and other groups (1981-present)

Selected Publications
"Discussion Lists Focus Attention on Disability in Development" (July 21, 2003) Global Development Network GDN-NA Web Site

(July 2003) Proyecto Visión News

Deaf Way II: A Promise to the Future" (November-December 2002) Disability World

"Proyecto Vision: Bridges to Employment for Latinos with Disabilities: An Overview of the August 2002 Conference" (October-November 2002) Proyecto Visión News

"Deaf Way II: Celebration of the Deaf Way of Life" (September-October 2002) Disability World

"Web-based Service Enables Users to Send Free Braille Letters and Learn Braille" Proyecto Visión News

"Breaking the Labels: New Teacher Raquel Muñiz Takes Her 'Can-Do' Attitude into the Classroom" (Summer 1998) Gallaudet Today

"A Struggle for Balance: Arianne Kassel is Among the Growing Number of Students Who Must Juggle School, Work, and Extracurricular Activities" (Fall 1997) Gallaudet Today

"New Ideas for Teaching Science: The Summer Institute in Biology Has Ended, but Science Teachers Are Still Reaping the Benefits" (Fall 1997) Preview

"Interacting Globally: MSSD Participates in a Live Internet Videoconference" (Fall 1997) Preview

"Getting Wired: Volunteers Come Together to Connect MSSD and KDES to the Internet" (Fall 1997) Preview

"Building Families: Deaf Parents Who Adopt Face Challenges and Rewards" (Summer 1997) Gallaudet Today

"Bringing Hope: Pre-College Latino Parents Get Support at the Grupo Esperanza Conference" (Fall 1996) Preview

"A Better Life: That's What Franklin Torres Wants for Deaf People in His Country, Peru" (spring 1996) Gallaudet Today

"A New Start: ELI Students Come to Gallaudet to Learn English, but They Take Away Much More" (spring 1996) Gallaudet Today (Includes the following side bars: "Mars Haikaili--Namibia"; "Lisa Lind--Norway"; "Zhou Fang--China"; "Zhuhair Alsaegh--Saudi Arabia") (A substantial extract from this article has been put on the web at http://eli.gallaudet.edu/ELI_Successful_Students.htm; please note that I am not, however, the author of the section on Tissa Peiris from Sri Lanka which is also included at the bottom of this page)

Closed Captions: An Untapped Resource in Combating Illiteracy" (August 1996) Gary Robson: Captioning Information Web site

"Seeds of Success: For Fat Lam, China's first Deaf Ph.D., Education is the Key to Growth" (spring 1995) Gallaudet Today

"Starting Over: Bosnian refugee Amra Arslanagic is Making a New Life for Herself at Gallaudet" (spring 1995) Gallaudet Today

"Breaking the Cycle: Jordan's Manal Hamzeh Helps Deaf People Help Themselves" (summer 1994) Gallaudet Today

"Catalyst for Change: Sociologist Bernard Mottez Has Helped Facilitate Social Change in the French Deaf Community" (Spring 1994) Gallaudet Today

Novel Flute Song Magic (1990) New York City: Avon Flare Books

Unpublished Work
"Disability Inclusion in Education: Everybody's Business" (February 2003) (Unpublished paper; was written for, and distributed at, UNESCO's World of Education conference February 2003)

"The Status of Deaf and Hard of Hearing People Around the World: An Overview Based on a Review of the Gallaudet University Center for Global Education (CGE) Files" (Summer 1998) (Unpublished paper)

Conferences Attended
Proyecto Visión, Bridges to Employment for Latinos with Disabilities, in Manhattan, New York (August 2003)

U.S. Education-Sector Meeting on UNESCO; attended lecture, and participated in discussion, regarding U.S. role in UNESCO's international educational efforts (January 2003)

World Bank Conference: Disability and Development, in Washington, D.C.; attended lectures and panel discussions on disability in developing countries (December 2002)

Beyond Curb Cuts: Access to Routine Medical Care, sponsored by Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington and by Access Coalition of DC Annual Conference, in Washington, D.C.; attended lectures related to access to medical care for people with a range of physical, sensory, mental, and psychiatric disabilities (September 2002)

Proyecto Visión, Bridges to Employment for Latinos with Disabilities, in Anaheim, California; attended all plenary sessions; attended breakout sessions on Independent Living Centers, using international travel as a way to develop employment skills, preparing Latino youth with disabilities for employment, employment opportunities with government agencies, and a rap session on building bridges between the Latino and disability communities (August 2002)

Deaf Way II, Washington, D.C.; attended all keynote and plenary sessions; consistently chose breakout sessions related to deaf communities in developing countries; selected examples of topics include: "Working with Donors and Technical Assistance Organizations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People in Developing Nations," "World Federation of the Deaf and Global Human Rights," "The Role of Deaf Women in Various Countries," "Strategies for Sign Language Teacher Training and Research in Developing Nations," and "Reaching Out to Deaf Communities in Developing Countries" (July 2002)

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in the Fields of Learning Disabilities and Deafness, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (2000)

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in the Fields of Learning Disabilities and Deafness, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (1998)

World Federation of the Deaf conference, Tokyo, Japan; attended workshops on a wide range of topics related to deaf culture and deaf communities around the world (1991)

Deaf Way, Washington, D.C.; attended all keynote and plenary presentations; attended workshops on a wide range of topics related to language/linguistics, research, deaf culture, and deaf communities in developing countries (1989