Amber Martin​

Amber Martin, Ph.D is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York where she teaches courses in Child Development, Cognitive Processes, and Emotion. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development. She completed her post-doctoral studies at Barnard College where began her current work studying deaf children in Nicaragua. Her research focuses on the relations between developing language and cognition, and the impact of early language deprivation and delayed acquisition in deaf children.

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Cara Miller​

         Dr. Cara A. Miller obtained her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology in 2011. She specialized in providing clinical mental health services to college students and young adults at George Mason University and the University of Missouri before undertaking her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California - Berkeley. Her academic and research interests are wide-ranging and varied, and include identity development related to gender, sexuality, and disability; diversity and inclusion; assistance dogs; and the human-animal bond. She has presented nationally and internationally to industry professionals, legislators, assistance dog trainers, executives, and the lay public at conferences of Assistance Dogs International, International Association of Assistance Dog Partners, Courthouse Dogs, the Research Center on Human-Animal Interaction, Japan Hearing Dog Association, and Hearing Loss Association of America, among others. Dr. Miller has appeared on National Geographic Wild’s “Canine, MD” and NexGuard’s “Hero Tails” series, and has contributed perspectives to publications including Dog News and The Huffington Post. She previously served as a Regional Board Member and Capital Chapter President for Canine Companions for Independence, where she and her black Labrador Retriever Hearing Dog, Turf, were matched and trained. Since 2014, she has served as Coordinator of the LGBTQA Resource Center at Gallaudet University, and is a Regional Representative for the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals.

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Carlisle Robinson​

Carlisle Robinson is a deaf genderqueer Canadian and American comic creator and illustrator. They are passionate about educating the public with rarely told stories by the minority groups, especially deaf people. They went to Gallaudet University for undergrad. They graduated from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Spring 2015 with a Master of Fine Arts. They currently reside in Toronto with their cats.They draw everything using Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud and Wacom Intuos 4 tablet.

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Claire Sanders​

Claire Sanders has been teaching in the field of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies for 20 years.  She is a Deaf Studies Department Chair and a professor of language and culture at Holyoke Community College. She has also taught at numerous colleges including Hampshire College, Keene State College, Mt. Wachusett Community College, Greenfield Community College.  She holds a professional national certification from American Sign Language Teachers Association.  She has also led workshops related to the booming field of Deaf Studies.

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​Dana Hoover​

Dana Hoover is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor of American Sign Language at Hampshire College.  She holds two Master’s Degrees: Deaf Education and Community Counseling Psychology.  With passion and enthusiastic, Dana enjoys engaging with students to become allies for the Deaf community.

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Expressions Art Bar

            Soon to be posted.

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Hayden Kristal​​

Hayden Kristal is a Deaf, bisexual, Jewish, transgender activist and stand-up comedian. Living his life at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities led him to a career as a professional speaker exploring the intersections of disability, gender, sexuality, particularly within the spheres of activism and social justice. He has brought his funny, engaging, and interactive workshops and speeches to dozens of conferences and schools all across North America. In 2016, he delivered his first TEDxTalk, and was the recipient of a Catalyst Award from the University of Missouri, for his dedication to creating change for and within the LGBTQ community.

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Rita Child

Rita Child is 11 years old and is Deaf. She is in 5th grade the Marie Philip School at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, MA. (She is also a Hampshire College Children's Center graduate). Rita has a passion for creating sciency concoctions, slime being her current favorite. She loves playing most sports, especially basketball, swimming, and soccer, loves reading, and enjoys most of her classes at MPS with specific interests in science and ELA. On the side she enjoys learning Spanish.

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Kellynette Gomez​

Kellynette is a Massachusetts native and a recent graduate of Gallaudet University, where she received a Bachelor's in Social Work. She currently works at Springfield College as the Community Involvement and Program Liaison under the Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement. This is her first time at the DEAFinitions Conference and she is excited to be here!

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Nicholas Lalanne​

Lalanne, an instructor at HCC since 2010, teaches four levels of ASL. He also teaches Deaf Studies, in which students enhance their knowledge of ASL and study Deaf culture, based on shared language, values and history.

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Rikki Poynter​

Rikki Poynter is a Deaf YouTuber who lives in North Carolina. After four years of being a makeup vlogger on YouTube, she quit the makeup community and moved on to talking about deafness, about her life growing up as a mainstreamed deaf person, and learning about and being involved in Deaf culture. Aside from YouTube, Rikki is also a writer at DTV News and public speaker. She has run her workshop Lights, Camera, Caption! at VidCon and will do so at Playlist Live in May 2017. Outside of YouTube, Rikki loves coffee, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, pomeranians, and cats.

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Simon Carmel​

Dr. Simon J. Carmel has been presenting “Deaf Folklore” and “Deaf Holocaust Survivors’ Testimonials” at universities, deaf clubhouses and schools for the deaf throughout the U.S. and in several European countries since 1977.  He has written articles on deaf folklore, deaf community, deaf culture, and hundred different national sign language dictionaries, and published three books—International Hand Alphabet Charts, Silent Magic: Biographies of 59 Deaf Magicians in the U.S. from the 19th to 21st Centuries, and Invisible Magic: Biographies of 112 Deaf Magicians from 28 Countries. He had worked as a physicist at the National Bureau of Standards in Gaithersburg, Maryland for twenty years.  He received his Ph.D. in the field of cultural anthropology from American University in Washington, DC in 1987.  He taught cultural anthropology, sociology and other related courses at Gallaudet University and Rochester Institute of Technology, and cultural anthropology and folklore at Jyvaskyla University in Finland. In June-December 1994 he was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar/Lecturer residing in Moscow, Russia.   Today he is retired from teaching and works as a full-time writer and lecturer.  He resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.  

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Stuart Soboleski​

Stuart Soboleski is a Deaf farmer and handyman living in Northern Vermont.  He grew up in a Deaf family and attended the American School for the Deaf and then was mainstreamed in a local public school in Connecticut. After graduating from UConn, he lived in Switzerland for 5 summers learning the ins and outs of traditional farming in the mountains then he moved to Vermont to teach Deaf children for a couple of years then he continued on with his passion in farming.  He has an 8-month old Deaf daughter with his wife, Blair, who is also Deaf.

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Win Moore

​Winchell Moore has been deaf since birth.  He attended Clarke School, private day school and public high school. He went to Pennsylvania University and Philadelphia Art School. He received a diploma in metal work from Rochester Institute of Technology.  He graduated from Gallaudet College with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Art Education.  He taught at three different schools for the deaf - Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Wisconsin, Crotched Mountain School for the Deaf in New Hampshire and Clarke School for the Deaf in Massachusetts.  He is married to Ruth Moore and  has two deaf sons, also six hearing grandchildren.  He loves to collect rocks/gems and makes handmade silver/gold  jewelry.  He enjoys going fishing and hiking. During his presentation, he will share his experiences growing up as a deaf person.

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