Roberta J. Cordano

Roberta J. “Bobbi” Cordano is the eleventh president of Gallaudet University. In office since January 2016, she is the university’s fourth deaf president since its founding in 1864, its first deaf female president, and its first openly identified member of the LGBTQA community. President Cordano has brought new energy and transformational leadership to the role, leading strategic planning, academic innovation, and new approaches to birth to 21 and higher education bilingual pedagogy, services and fulfilling Gallaudet’s service mission for the nation and the world. She has prioritized Gallaudet’s unique mission and history as a bilingual institution, recognizing its unique legacy with sign in language vibrancy and focusing on Gallaudet’s unique economic contribution to creating and growing a significant sign language economy. She is committed to preparing children, undergraduate and graduate students and broader creating economic and leadership opportunities for deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind individuals. As Gallaudet navigates the novel coronavirus pandemic, she led educational programs to becoming virtual and is committed to continuing to assure that Gallaudet remains a hybrid learning institution as they emerge from this pandemic. She is deeply committed to leading the university’s multidimensional anti-racism initiative that focuses on individual, collective and systemic work to achieve a strong sense of belonging and equity for every member of community. A seasoned, proven administrator and leader, President Cordano brings to her presidency skills and experience built in both traditional and non-traditional settings. She started her career as an attorney for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office for 10 years. She has held leadership positions in higher education, health care, and the nonprofit sectors for organizations such as the university of Minnesota, Park Nicollet Institute and Park Nicollet Health Services, and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. She was also a founding board member of two bilingual charter schools for deaf, hard of hearing. and deafblind children in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She served on the boards of these two schools for a total of 17 years, culminating with the merger of the two schools into a birth-12 grade school, Metro Deaf School. A 1987 graduate of Beloit College, President Cordano received her Juris Doctor degree in 1990 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Having grown up in a Deaf family, she is fluent in American Sign Language and English.