Laurene Simms

Dr. Laurene E. Simms, Gallaudet’s first Chief Bilingual Officer (CBO), directs projects establishing bilingualism, bilingual education, and ASL teaching on campus. As a long-time faculty member in the Department of Education, Dr. Simms has substantial teaching, research, and hands-on experience in establishing bilingual/multicultural educational environments for diverse deaf and hard-of-hearing learners from early childhood through postsecondary levels, particularly in the areas of language and literacy. Before this, Dr. Simms was a classroom teacher and administrator at Indiana School for the Deaf and prepared teachers of the deaf and a sign language interpreter at Western Oregon University. Her academic credentials include a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, a Master of Education degree in deaf education from McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), and a Ph.D. degree in language, reading, and culture from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.