Secretary

Vance Deatherage has been working within the Deaf community for his entire professional career. A late-deafened HoH cuer and signer, he has seen the difference that visual access to communication can make in our lives. 

Graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf (RIT/NTID), his passion has been working with Deaf children and interpreters, trying to increase the quality of education for Deaf/HoH kids and creating more opportunities for success and independence for Deaf people - no matter the age, setting, or choice of visual language. 

After working as an interpreter, transliterator, paraeducator for Deaf children, and Elementary Teacher of the Deaf in various states across the United States, Vance has seen the importance of consistent, quality access to language and the impact it has on the lives of Deaf people. 

In addition to his work in Deaf education, Vance has previously worked as an advocate for the Deaf, working on issues ranging from legal/court cases and IEP advocacy, to disaster response in collaboration with the Red Cross and FEMA. 

Additionally, in his role as an advocate, Vance is one of the West Coast representatives for the NCSA and is a certified instructor of Cued American English. He worked to help adapt the Cued Language system to other languages internationally and has a deep passion for linguistics.

Another related area of passion, Vance has worked to help foster and grow the skills of interpreters of all types, teaching linguistics of ASL, as well as other related interpreting curriculum, and hopes to develop more workshops and partner with more practitioners with shared motivations and goals. 

Holding a Bachelor of Science in ASL-English Interpretation, and in the process of completing a graduate degree related to Interpreting Pedagogy, he loves working with and watching interpreters gain their footing in both languages as well as the process of interpreting and transliterating. 

Vance currently resides in the SF Bay Area with his partner and is excited to be joining the ValiDeaf team!