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Roberta Cordano

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roberta Cordano
11th President of Gallaudet University
Assumed office
January 1, 2016
Preceded byT. Alan Hurwitz
Personal details
Born (1963-11-29) November 29, 1963 (age 60)

Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano (born November 29, 1963[1]) is the 11th president of Gallaudet University.[2][3] Cordano is the first deaf woman to become president of Gallaudet University, the first deaf woman to become president of a U.S. university, and the first woman and first openly LGBT person to be officially installed as Gallaudet President.

Life

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Cordano obtained her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1990. She was assistant attorney general for Minnesota.[4] She was assistant dean at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.[5][6]

Cordano was awarded the Hubert Humphrey award by the University of Wisconsin.[7] She is among the first ten deaf women in the United States to have earned a Juris Doctor (JD) degree and is among the first 50 deaf women to have earned a doctoral degree, overall.[8]

Cordano is the first deaf woman to become president of Gallaudet University. Elisabeth Zinser, a hearing woman, held the Gallaudet presidency for less than one week amidst the March 1988 Deaf President Now protests. Zinser was never officially installed as president before her resignation.[9]

References

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  1. ^ The Herald-Press (Saint Joseph, Michigan), December 13, 1963, p. 5.
  2. ^ Gallaudet University: Cordano: New Deaf President
  3. ^ Presidential Search Finalists
  4. ^ "Her Own Way to the Top: AAUW". www.aauw.org. Archived from the original on 2016-05-30.
  5. ^ "Faculty and Staff | Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs". Archived from the original on 2007-08-10.
  6. ^ State of Minnesota proclamation of Roberta J. Cordano Day, Sept 30 2016
  7. ^ Roberta Cordano '90 Wins Humphrey Award at Univ of Wisconsin site
  8. ^ Holcomb, Mabs and Sharon Wood. 1989. Deaf Women--A Parade through the Decades. Berkeley, CA: Dawn Sign Press, p. 87.
  9. ^ GU: President-Select
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External media
Audio
audio icon Gallaudet President Navigates From World Of Hearing To Sound Leadership Of The Deaf, NPR, January 21, 2017
audio icon WMAU Radio Interview of Gallaudet University's President Roberta Cordano, 11/21/2016
Video
video icon Gallaudet President Cordano lectures at UW Linguistics/ASL, University of Washington, Jan 12, 2018

Further reading

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Academic offices
Preceded by President of Gallaudet University
January 1, 2016 – present
Succeeded by
Incumbent