Dr. Carol J. Erting, a long-time faculty member and administrator, received the Sister Mary Delaney Award at the Association of College Educators-Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ACE-DHH) conference February 2-4 in San Antonio, Texas.

The purpose of the Sister Mary Delaney Award award is to honor the distinguished career of an ACE-DHH member in teaching, research, and service in the preparation of teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. In presenting the award, Dr. Marlon H. Kuntze, 鈥�74, stated that Dr. Erting and Dr. Tom Humphries, 鈥�68 were instrumental in the creation of the ACE-DHH Bilingual Deaf Education Special Interest Group, now known as the Multilingual Deaf Education Special Interest Group. 

鈥淒r. Erting impacted the quality of Deaf people鈥檚 lives both culturally and academically,鈥� continued Dr. Kuntze. 鈥淓arly in her career as a teacher of deaf children, she reframed deaf children鈥檚 literacy challenges as a cultural problem, focused on strengths and on understanding the expertise and experience of Deaf people, instead of a deficit model. She did this at a time when there was major resistance to the legitimacy of signed languages, specifically ASL.鈥� 

This framework helped establish a roadmap for implementing bilingual teaching strategies with Deaf students and moved many schools towards bilingual programming, Dr. Kuntze said.. 鈥淒r. Erting, as a faculty member in Gallaudet鈥檚 education program, also taught, supervised, and mentored students She supported numerous university students across her career as an educator, advisor, mentor, dean, and provost.鈥�

Dr. Kuntze said that Dr. Erting was a scholar and researcher for over four decades, Notably, she worked in the Linguistics Research Laboratory with Dr. William C. Stokoe, H-鈥�88. She was also a research faculty member at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School. Over her careerm she obtained several research grants and published over 30 articles, book chapters, research reports, and monographs. Over one thousand publications cited her work. 

Dr. Erting presented 85 papers, both nationally and internationally. Her areas of interest included communication between Deaf children and various significant adults such as parents, teachers, and Deaf adults; teacher of the deaf preparation; neuroethics related to Deaf students and the Deaf community; and university leadership and administration. Additionally, she created a database related to ASL and English literacy that supported several doctoral students in their academic careers. 

Dr. Erting received many honors during her career, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, the NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science, and the William C. Stokoe Jr. Fellow in Ethnographic Studies of Deaf Language and Culture. She was a Digital Fellow with the Association of Chief Academic Officers (ACAO) Digital Fellows Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

ACE-DHH is an organization of university professors who prepare teachers for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Its mission is to provide a space for education professionals: to disseminate research; to engage in collaborative dialogues and networking opportunities; and to share resources and current ideas related to the education of deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

Congratulations, Dr. Erting!