The Power of My Fellow Deaf Women Behind the Obama's office in the White House
CLAUDIA GORDON
She was born in Jamaica.
After having sharp pains in her ears, her aunt who took care of her at the time
took her to a small clinic, as there were no hospitals. She was deaf at the age
of eight. She didn't believe she was deaf because she had been reading peoples
lip and thought she was hearing their voice. She faced discrimination in
Jamaica because she was deaf. When she was 11, she moved to the United States
and enrolled at the Lexington School for the Deaf in
New York. She was happy to move there because she wasn't receiving any
education in Jamaica.
Gordon graduated from Howard
University in 1995 with a bachelor of arts in political science. At Howard, she
was a Patricia Robert Harris Public Affairs Fellow, member of the Golden Keys
National Honor Society, and member of the Political Science Honor Society.
She received the Skadden
Fellowship for law graduates working with Persons with Disabilities. This paid
for her to work at the National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy
Center. This allowed her to provide, "Direct representation and advocacy
for poor deaf persons with a particular emphasis on outreach to those who are
members of minority groups." Next, she became a consultant to the National
Council on Disability and joined the Department of Homeland Security. At
Homeland Security Gordon is the senior policy advisor for the Department of
Homeland Security, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
She was the first deaf Black female
attorney in the United States. She worked in the U .S. Department of Labor’s
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Before that she had held a
position in the White House
Office of Public Engagement as the Public Engagement Advisor to
the Disability Community for less than a year. She was also the first deaf
person to work at the White House with President Barrack Obama. She has been active in both the black
deaf community and the disability community. She was the vice president of the
National Black Deaf Advocates. She is also associated with the National
Coalition for Disability Rights.
In 2004, she was named secretary
of the Board for the Lexington Board of Directors.
LEAH KATZ-HERNANDEZ
She was only 28, but she has made
history as well as witnessed it. Leah
Katz-Hernandez had early exposure to sign language through her
family. She is a mix of Mexican, Japanese, and Jewish American heritages.
Building her career in its early stages through internships and volunteering,
Leah shares an extensive personal experience in grassroots outreach, social
media engagement, nonprofit management, and disability policy issues. Leah has
earned her professional experience on political campaigns, at the Capitol Hill,
at the White House, and on K Street. She is the Executive Director of Deaf
Youth USA, sits on the AT&T Advisory Panel on Access and Aging, and
finished her fellowship at the American Association of People with Disabilities
as the 2011 HSC Foundation Youth Transitions Fellow.
In the West Wing of the White
House, Leah Katz-Hernandez communicates with the first couple in a way that few
others, even the president’s most trusted advisers, ever do.
Katz-Hernandez, who is deaf, is
the new receptionist of the United States, or what those in Washington like to
abbreviate as ROTUS (a play on POTUS – president of the United States). She
grew bicoastal, raised by a Jewish mother and a Mexican-American father in
Connecticut, frequently visiting her father’s family in California.
After working in the Chicago
headquarters of Obama’s re-election campaign, she moved to Washington, D.C.,
and was hired as an assistant in the first lady’s office.
“It was my first week on the
job,” Katz-Hernandez, 27, told Fox News Latino. “I was having lunch at my desk
when a staffer from the West Wing came by and said, ‘I want to introduce you to
the First Lady.’ The next thing I know the First Lady is standing in front of
me. She said, ‘Hi, my name is…’ and then she finger-spelled her name. It was
really a wonderful moment. I knew I’d arrived in a great place and felt really
motivated to work hard for her. “she said
In her new job as ROTUS,
Katz-Hernandez gets to welcome all of the president’s guests to the West Wing.
“I make sure that everyone is happy, and everyone feels welcome and has a nice
experience when they come into the West Wing lobby,” Hernandez said through a
sign-language translator. “I also manage the Roosevelt Room and Ward Room, as
well – you know, managing the relationship with the Kennedy Center with regards
to the president’s box. “At the White House, Katz-Hernandez has access to an
interpreter to help her do her job.
“The White House is really a
model for accessibility for people with disabilities – and especially for deaf
people,” she said. “I believe my story sends a good message about the abilities
of people who are deaf and Latino to be successful anywhere."
Those two ladies have been my inspiration,
they have inspired me to be who I am now by reminding me that being a Deaf
woman I can overcome all the odds and become somebody in my country.I don't and will never regret meeting such people in my life.
#DeafWomenPower
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