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Elizabeth Moore
Please give us some background information about you (where you are from, how you identify yourself - such as D/deaf, Hard of Hearing, and so forth - and your professional identity). Born and reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I attended W. & E. Martin School, an oral day school for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, until the age of 13. I then transferred to Pennsylvania School for Deaf, a residential school for the Deaf, where I finally learned American Sign Language and graduated in 1977. I attended Gallaudet University where I graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work. I also earned a Master of Social Work degree in 1994. I recently completed my doctoral studies last May. Pah! I have been in the field of social work since 1981. I am currently MSW Program Director and Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Work, Gallaudet University. I have taught both undergraduate and graduate courses since 1996 and, at the same time, I’ve managed the MSW program since 2006. Before this, I worked as an advisor for the Academic Advising Department, while I taught one social work course for three semesters. I was a part-time teacher at Maryland Rehabilitation Center's Adult Basic Education program for deaf adults. I was a part-time mental health therapist at the Baltimore, MD based Family Services Foundation of the Deaf, Inc. and a coordinator of Project AIDS at Deafpride, Inc., a community based organization in Washington, D.C.
I have been involved in the professional social work community, and I’m currently I am considered Deaf. I belong to a family with four generations of deaf members; I learned recently that one of my grand nephews is hard of hearing. I am the daughter of the late Rev. Carl A. Moore and Naomi Moore, and I have six siblings. Out of the seven of us, four - including myself - are deaf or hard of hearing. My mother, who is also hard of hearing, was the one who stressed the importance of education. I followed in the footsteps of my father by becoming involved in the community. My mother was initially a homemaker and later worked as Internal Revenue Service examiner. My father was a Baptist minister and a civil rights advocate for many years. My father spent many hours traveling, preaching and helping people, and fighting for the rights of African Americans. He even took some of us along with him to the various community activities. He and several uncles and aunts were involved in the 1960s civil rights movements particularly My father was the one who inspired me to become a social worker/community activist. But I was also fortunate that my deaf brother, Carl, who is now an ordained minister in Tulsa Oklahoma always took me to various deaf community activities, deaf clubs, and even professional meetings where I observed and met a number of deaf and hearing people, especially professionals working with deaf and hard of hearing populations.
Please share with us how you became affiliated with National Black Deaf Advocates, Inc., and your experiences at both the local and national levels of the organization. I recall that my friend and I traveled to Cleveland Ohio in the summer of 1982 for the first National Black Deaf Advocates conference. I was “sign less” when I met a number of Black Deaf achievers, namely Lottie Crook, Ernest Hairston, and Albert Couthen. I was so honored when I met Lottie Crook who was one of the fine leaders who founded the National Black Deaf Advocates. I didn’t know that Mr. Couthen was then an assistant principal at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School or that Mr. Ernest Hairston and Linwood Smith wrote a book that was called “Black and Deaf: Are We That Different?” I was so blessed that I had an opportunity to work with Mr. Linwood Smith when he was a therapist at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Unit for the Deaf. I was, of course, so excited to meet so many Black Deaf achievers and since then, at every opportunity, I have attended various conferences and seminars for the purpose of professional development. At one point, I returned home to Philadelphia with a strong sense of commitment and collaborated with Rev. Repsie Warren to establish the Philadelphia Chapter of Black Deaf Advocates in 1982. Many local Black Deaf members organized the conference for the summer of 1983 under my leadership. Carl M. Moore and Albert Couthen were there for consultation. Believe it or not, I was pregnant at the time and my baby was born approximately two weeks prior to the national conference. Congressman William H. Gray representing the Philadelphia area was invited to give a beautiful lecture at the banquet and the very first NBDA pageant took place. Many of us were left with good memories and continued our advocacy efforts, mostly in the local area. Much later, a small group and I established the Northern Virginia Black Deaf Advocates for the purpose of education and advocacy. In the 1980s, in the midst of the HIV epidemic, I was offered a job as AIDS Education and Advocacy coordinator. A federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant enabled me to travel all over the country to educate different audiences of the deaf and to work closely with health clinics and hospitals serving deaf patients. I was invited to serve on the National Coalition on HIV and the Deaf Community. The Deafpride newsletters that focused on HIV issues were distributed all over the country. I was eventually featured twice in the Gallaudet University Deaf MOSIAC television talk show in the early 1990s to discuss HIV and the deaf community. As a result of these numerous outreach efforts, my collaboration with different organizations of the deaf strengthened. As you see my roles of professional social worker and BDA advocate have often As a professional social worker, I have an obligation to empower, educate, and Please share with us in detail about your efforts to earn a doctorate degree. Whatchallenges did you have to overcome and what advice do you have for other Black Deaf and Hard of Hearing persons who will come after you with a similar goal. To be honest with you, I never dreamt that I would eventually join the club of Black Deaf Ph.D. achievers joining the ranks of people like Dr. Glenn Anderson and Dr. Shirley Allen. I was so fortunate that I was able to grab as many opportunities as I did. One of my favorite career memories was, when I first joined the faculty in 1996 at the Department of Social Work as a faculty member, I was encouraged to begin my doctoral studies in the second year of my regular teaching. I took advantage of the educational benefits that my employer provided. I first went to Howard University School of Social Work where I had to rely heavily on interpreters in the classes. Needless to say, I suffered eyestrain, as it was my very first experience being in an all-hearing school environment. Throughout the first few semesters, I became accustomed to heavy research and a lot of reading. I managed to participate in the group projects. I experienced some obstacles throughout the program, though. I would advise doctoral students to take both qualitative and quantitative research methods because you will need to determine which research design works best for your dissertation but it would also depend on what your dissertation topic is. I must confess that I did not enjoy the statistics but, with private tutoring, I successfully completed two statistics courses. I even had to go to the campus on Saturdays for tutoring. Winks! It is imperative that you set up a good dissertation committee. You must be familiar with each dissertation member’s work and you need to know that they are a good team; otherwise, you may fail your dissertation. Be sure that each dissertation member respects your desired goal. Two key members of the dissertation committee are the chair and the research advisor. They provide feedback, particularly on the first three dissertation chapters so that you can complete a dissertation proposal in a timely fashion. It is important that you maintain regular communication with those two members. At the same time, you may want to explore grants for your dissertation work. I was so fortunate that I successfully secured a grant that allowed me to travel all over the country to interview six Black Deaf research participants and to compensate them for their time. You may end up paying out of pocket if the grant is not sufficient. One thing I have to tell you is that you have to give up or limit your social life in order to effectively manage your time for doctoral studies. I came from a large family with many deaf members, but I had to minimize my contact with them. It was not easy. I had to decline many invitations for dinner, parties, and organization meetings. I tend to take long walks especially with my lovely dog, Meki. You may consider inviting a few friends of yours or family members to help you with cooking meals and cleaning up the house. I frequently sought the advice of two deaf professionals possessing PhD degrees. I would recommend that you identify and ask one or two mentors who are willing to provide steady, reliable support. Completing a doctoral degree is unquestionably one of the most significant milestones in my life. It not only required my personal efforts but also support from my family, friends, and colleagues. I am deeply indebted to my dissertation committee. In particular, I thanked those study participants who made my dissertation possible. Please share with us at least one Black Deaf or Hard of Hearing Person who has inspired you and whom you look up to (and why). As you see, my dissertation explored the experiences of Black Deaf administrators I was also fortunate that I had an opportunity to further explore the experiences of social injustices by traveling to South Africa last summer. In particular, I thoroughly studied the lives of Nelson Mandela and other political activists. I could not picture myself being in Nelson Mandela’s shoes. He was in the prison for 27 years and 6 months and he even denied numerous offers of prison release that would compromise his demand of freedom. I admire his persistence and courage. I recommend you purchase a book about his life called “Long Walk to Freedom.” I am sorry that I have not been able to narrow down a list of those people who inspired me to one person. I have been so blessed in that I have been surrounded by many lovely people especially my family, my sweetheart, my relatives, my friends, and people from all walks of life. Please share with us your vision for how NBDA can recruit more youth and college age students to the organization, and why it is important for them to join with us. Also, if you have any other suggestions, from your experience, as to how NBDA can organize its social work members around organizational advocacy efforts, this would be appreciated, as well. Have you heard the expression “It take a village to raise a child”? Basically, I think Through the lens of the Beers Social Systems Theory, educational institutions, government agencies, human service organizations, and advocacy organizations deal with internal and external systems of stakeholders. The recent dissertation that I conducted confirmed that racism, audism, and numerous other biases have been ingrained in institutions and organizations. What am I trying to say about this? NBDA should also encourage the attendance of their Caucasian Deaf, Caucasian hearing, and Black hearing colleagues and administrators at these conferences. Thus all of them will have the opportunity to process the experiences they had in the workplaces and at the same time develop and strengthen their own organizations back home, as well as developing network possibilities for Black Deaf advocates. Then, they would, in turn, send more Black Deaf youth and college age students to NBDA leadership training or camp. NBDA would consequently maintain strong partnership with the various associations of the deaf, educational institutions, and other organizations of the deaf. One option is that Black Deaf advocates invite themselves to visit the institutions and organizations and tell them that they are interested in mentoring Black Deaf students and colleagues. They could participate in afterschool activities, sit on advisory boards, or serve as officers in the advocacy organizations of the Deaf. Previous studies have repeatedly reinforced the notion that Black Deaf children might receive the wrong idea about the lives of culturally diverse Deaf persons if they aren’t exposed to culturally diverse role models and mentors, especially within the Black community. Isn’t it time to reassess the needs of the Black Deaf community? NBDA may want to consider sending out questionnaires to BDA members first to identify their expertise or specialty and special skills and make suggestions. Maybe the board can assist with making lists of members who share similar interests. Each group may then be asked to identify its group leader from inside the group and name the caucus, i.e., Black Deaf Education Caucus, Black Deaf Social Work Caucus, and Group of Black Deaf Administrators (from various fields). This is just an example. I think it is time for the NBDA to reexamine the Black Deaf community’s needs in order to strengthen its own organization and to provide better resources. References
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