TerpAcademy Online

Tiffany Bridgett, M.A. identifies herself as d/Deaf and a fluent ASL signer. She is currently an advanced student in the Clinical Psychology PhD Program at Gallaudet University. She graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology (2014) with magna cum laude in Psychology and Pre-Med with a minor in Criminal Justice. Ms. Bridgett has been trained at University of Michigan- Psychology Department, University of Rochester- Deaf Wellness Center, Gallaudet University- Counseling and Psychological Services, D.C. Courts- the Child Guidance Court, San Diego Community Services- Behavioral Health Department, Multicultural Clinical Center in Virginia, Psychiatric Washington Institute in Washington, D.C., Veterans Affairs Health System, and the nationwide Crisis Text Line. For the past two years, she has been working as a clinical consultant for the Deaf Services at Barrier Free Living, an agency that serves domestic violence survivors with disabilities. For her dissertation, she is doing research on identifying how to best administer assessment measures in standardized ASL and how to best measure language-based reasoning in deaf children who speak ASL. In short, Ms. Bridgett is interested in improving mental health services for the deaf population, including interpreting services for signing professionals and clients. She wants to be able to make services more accessible, culturally acceptable, and clinically appropriate. Above all, she strives to reduce misdiagnoses among deaf people and eradicate the stigma of mental illnesses in the Deaf community.

Jasmin, a current resident of New York and Deaf Interpreter who is seeking Deaf Interpreter certification (CDI), possesses native skills in English, Spanish and Colombian Sign Language and is also a Deaf Parented Interpreter (DPI). She has traveled and lived in various countries and states and is always in tune with and an active participant in the community, specifically for the Deaf. Her professional life, as an interpreter for almost 20 years, has brought her in touch with so many people, experiences and settings that are widely varied and even within the last few years as an evaluator has allowed her to assess the skills and knowledge of interpreters with the intention to foster growth and development to assure quality of work being providing for the community. The same mix of diverse experiences can be seen in her personal life and journey within the Deaf, Hearing and interpreting worlds having been born Hearing, she began losing her hearing as a teen, became Nationally Certified by RID (NIC Master) while Hard of Hearing yet then became deaf and transitioned into becoming a Deaf interpreter. The dual experience and knowledge of both being an interpreter and user has afforded Jasmin many opportunities to various encounters that has led to her to raise awareness of and educate interpreters within the field on ways to improve not only one’s linguistic but cultural skills as well.