I’m a CODA from the US, a developmental psychologist, a linguist, a cognitive scientist, and I am passionate about language access for deaf children and supporting deaf scientists in their careers and discoveries.
I have collaborated with deaf people and communities in the US and in Nicaragua to study how new languages develop, how language development shapes cognitive development, and how gestures become signs.
I am the founder and chair of Signs and Smiles, a non-profit organization that advocates for access to language and education for deaf people internationally. We developed a smartphone app to promote learning of basic signs in Lengua de Señas Nicaragüense (LSN, or Nicaraguan Sign Language), which you can download for free here: https://www.signsandsmiles.org/
Our most recent collaboration is with EEESMA, a deaf school in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México. We offer professional development to deaf and hearing educators in the region and in August, 2024 released a version of the sign language application in Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM, or Mexican Sign Language).
From 2023-25 I am on leave from my position at the University of Connecticut and am an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science, Technology, and Policy Fellow placed at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where I am working on Open Science policy and increasing the participation of deaf and disabled researchers at NSF and in the scientific enterprise.
