Carrie Lou Bloom, PhD, is Director of the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes and a faculty member at The University of Texas at Austin. With experience securing more than $42 million in grant funding, she brings extensive expertise in using data, research, and community needs to build compelling cases for investment. Her work focuses on improving education and career opportunities for deaf people by examining where systems fail—and changing the systems, not deaf people.

ID: Carrie Lou Bloom, a smiling white woman with shoulder-length, curly brown hair, is wearing a black blouse and glasses, with a white pillar behind her.

Marilyn Jean Smith (she/her) is the founder and former executive director of the Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services (ADWAS) in Seattle, Washington and is considered the Mother of the Anti-Violence Movement in Deaf America. She received her B.A. and her M.A. from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Her work at ADWAS brought many awards, including those from President Clinton, Gallaudet University, and the National Association of the Deaf, and Deaf Women United. She received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Gallaudet University in 2004.

ID: Marilyn, a white woman with long gray hair, smiles at the camera. She is wearing a red top and a beaded necklace, framed in a circular image with a teal border against a leafy background.