Su Kyong Isakson, MA, NIC, Ed: K-12; Website Curator
Ms. Isakson is an educator, mentor, freelance interpreter, and IMI practitioner hailing from Alaska. She graduated from Western Oregon University with a Master’s degree in Interpreting Studies with an emphasis in teaching; her Master’s thesis focused on a tool to assess heritage signers to inform placement and differentiation of ASL and interpreting courses. A Heritage Signer herself, Ms. Isakson's areas of interest include curriculum and pedagogy of heritage sign language learners, as well as language attitudes and its impact on interpreting. Ms. Isakson is faculty at the Community College of Baltimore County’s interpreter preparation program in Catonsville, MD.
Gabriel Arellano, Contributor
Mr. Arellano is a Heritage Signer who has lived and worked in the US, Denmark, Italy, and the UK, and uses American, Danish, Italian, and British Sign Languages. Arellano has studied signed language linguistics and anthropology (Univ. of New Mexico ‘01), ASL and Deaf Studies (Gallaudet MA ‘07), and was a PhD candidate on language documentation at University College London in UK. At Sign Language Research Lab (Georgetown), he researched and developed a translation of Heritage Sign Language by 15 Master Signers (Dr Dougherty, Gallaudet, Fay, Veditz, and others) and consulted on heritage sign language and sign language linguistics. Arellano is employed for ASLPI (ASL Proficiency Interview) at Gallaudet University, and as Deaf STEM Camp Director for Camp Mark 7 in New York. Arellano's experiences led him to develop a desire to help the Sign Language community achieve its goals of improving the quality of education of the Deaf in the United States and worldwide as well as raise its literacy level through STEMS.