Board of Directors ...
President |
... | Alysse Rasmussen |
Vice President |
... | Rey J. Vega |
Secretary |
... | Cheryl Zuckerman |
Treasurer |
... | Lori Cimino |
Newsletter/Media Editor |
... | Shawn Olmstead |
Director |
... | Marika Robinson
|
Director |
... | Jer Loudenback |
Director |
... | JoyAnn DiGiovanni |
Past President |
... | Cheryl Zuckerman |
Bios of Board Members...
Alysse Rasmussen, PhD. teaches ASL 1 & 2 at Valencia Community College in Orlando. She holds 2 BAs in Linguistics & Spanish from UW-Madison (1978). In addition she has Graduate Certificates in Teaching ASL & Interpreting from Colorado University at Boulder (2001) and Teaching Interpretering Educators & Mentors from Northeastern University, Boston (2003). In early 2004, she completed her MA in Learning & Technololgy from Western Governors University. She has been a member of ASLTA & FASLTA since 1989. Alysse currently holds ASLTA Qualified certification.
Reinaldo (Rey) J. Vega, M.Ed. was born and raised in West Palm Beach, FL, resided in Jacksonville, FL for two years and Kissimmee, FL for eight years and returned to West Palm Beach August ‘05. He is profoundly deaf and attended public mainstreamed schools with a Deaf/HH Program. He was granted a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from NTID/RIT and a Master’s Degree in Special Education-Deaf Education from UNF along with Florida’s Educator’s Certificates in Mathematics 6-12 and Hearing Impaired K-12 with an ASL endorsement. He also has achieved national American Sign Language Teacher Association (ASLTA) Professional certificate. Overall, Rey has been teaching for over 12 years, one year at Jefferson Middle School in West Palm Beach, five years in the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program at St. Cloud High School, one year with Deaf PreK-K students at Cypress Elementary School, two years at Poinciana High School, all in Osceola County. He is currently teaching at John I. Leonard High School in West Palm Beach. Rey has taught ASL adult community Level 1-2 classes at ASL Services, Inc., part-time over two years, ASL 1 in high school over a year and half, taught ASL 1 and 4 at Miami-Dade College, and currently teaching ASL 1-4 at Palm Beach Community College. He is a former member and former President and Treasurer of Deaf Experience Association, Inc. (DEAI) in Kissimmee for five years. Rey was a member and a former Vice President of Orlando Club of the Deaf (OCD) and now, he is a member of Palm Beach County Association of the Deaf (PBCAD). Rey is also a member of FASLTA, ASLTA, RID, FRID, TriFRID, FEA, FAD, and NAD. He was a Florida Educational Interpreter Evaluation (EIE) evaluator, Florida Association of the Deaf (FAD) Member-at-Large (currently Secretary) and TriFRID Member-at-Large, Deaf Liaison.
Marika Robinson, M.A. holds a bachelor’s degree in interpreting from the University of South Florida, and a master’s degree in teacher from Grand Canyon University. She serves as an ASL adjunct instructor, tutor, and lab assistant for the St. Petersburg College Sign Language Interpretation Program in Clearwater, Florida. She is in the process of helping the dean expand the associate’s degree program to a bachelor’s degree program, and helped revise the college’s curriculum to change all instances of “deafness” to more appropriately reflect the word as an adjective by using “Deaf.” Born in Czechoslovakia, Marika and her deaf sister attended deaf schools in Prešov and Bratislava. She also co-founded a Deaf club in Michalovce, Slovakia. Moving to the United States in 1996, she became a U.S. citizen in 2003. ASLTA-certified at the professional level, Marika is fluent in nine languages: Slovak Sign Language (native), Slovak, Czech Sign Language (native), Czech, Hungarian Sign Language, Ukrainian Sign Language, Austrian Sign Language, American Sign Language (primary), and English.
Lori Cimino, M.Ed. teaches ASL/Interpreting courses at Florida Community College at Jacksonville. She holds a B.S. in Special Education: Emotionally Handicapped/Varying Exceptionalities from FIU (1995) and M.Ed. in Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing from the University of North Florida (1997). Lori has been working in the field of education for more than 13 years and has a passion for learning and teaching. Additional education and training include topics such as: teaching ASL to non-native signers, teaching English as a Second Language (ESOL), sign language interpretation and Applied Behavior Analysis. She has a special interest in students with unique learning needs and behavioral challenges. Prior to her current position Lori worked as an Educational Coordinator at the University of Florida – Center for Autism and Related Disabilities; as Behavioral Program Specialist for the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind; and as a teacher of ASL and Deaf/Hard of Hearing at the high school level. In recent years, Lori has transitioned from direct teaching and intervention with the deaf/hard of hearing population to working as a freelance interpreter. She holds a National Interpreter Certification - Advanced (2008). Her future professional goals include earning ASLTA (American Sign Language Teacher’s Association) certification and ASL Endorsement in the state of Florida.
Shawn Olmstead teaches at Winter Springs HS in the Seminole County Public School system. She holds ASLTA Professional level certification, and has also received her Florida DOE endorsement for teaching ASL. She has an AA in Interpreting for the Deaf and a BS in Exceptional Education. Shawn has been teaching ASL since 1998.
Jer L. Loudenback, M.Ed is a native of Seattle, Washington, the only deaf child in his family. Jer was educated in both oral schools and schools whose teachers used American Sign Language. He earned B.A. in Theatre Arts from Gallaudet University and a M.Ed. in Deaf Education from Lewis & Clark College. He has been teaching American Sign Language and Early Education for a decade. He also worked in numerous Deaf theatre productions including the National Theatre of the Deaf. Jer is the pre-lingual deaf recipient bilateral cochlear implants You may know Jer as Mr. Dennis Bravo of the Sign Enhancers, Inc. Bravo Family© videotapes. He lives with his family in Jacksonville, Florida.
JoyAnn DiGiovanni, M.Ed received her Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and a Master's degree in Deaf Education. Both degrees were earned from New York University. She has extensive experience teaching sign language to preschool, elementary, middle school, high school and college students. She worked as a teacher of the deaf at a deaf school in New York for 14 years. In addition, she taught sign language classes at New York University, Hofstra University, Adelphi University, Nassau Community College, Suffolk Community College, New Hyde Park Memorial High School, New York Interpreters for the Deaf Inc, New York Society of the Deaf, North Shore Hospital and other places. She worked in a bi- cultural center on Long Island, and gave lectures and workshops about deaf culture, deaf education, sign language and more. JoyAnn is currently working as an adjunct instructor at Palm Beach Community College for 14 years, and teaches sign language classes at a private school. She has countless volunteer hours teaching various groups and organizations.
Cheryl Zuckerman, M.Ed. is teaching all levels of ASL in a public HS in Fort Lauderdale since January 2001. She previously taught in a Deaf Ed program for 2 years, and has taught continuing education classes in ASL at Broward Community College. She holds an M.S. in Education, a Certificate in Teaching ASL from Colorado University at Boulder, and Florida DOE ASL endorsement. Cheryl teaches community education ASL classes, and is a former EIE evaluator for the Florida Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (FRID), and is currently involved with the FLDOE to create a state database of test questions for use by American Sign Language teachers in FL public schools..
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