FIRST-OFS AND FOUNDERS CATEGORY

GERTRUDE GALLOWAY
First woman president for National Association of The Deaf and Deaf Seniors of America, as well as the first Deaf woman in the country to head a school for the Deaf

CLAUDIA GORDON
First Black Deaf attorney in the United States and the first Deaf student to graduate from the American University (AU) Washington College of Law

LIZZIE SORKIN
First Deaf student to be a student government president at a predominately hearing University with close to 18,000 students

ASHLEY FIOLEK
First female to race for a factory team last year when she joined the Honda Red Bull and X Games’ first Deaf gold medalist

BUSINESSWOMEN CATEGORY

MYRNA ORLECK-AIELLO
CEO of TCS Associates, first Deaf women to be named as Entrepreneur of the Year by Professional Woman’s Magazine

MOON FERIS
Established and operates Western Interpreting Network (WIN) one of the four interpreting companies in the United States that are owned and operated by Deaf people

MARA LADINES-REYES
Owner and Fashion Designer of By Mara, incorporates ASL in her clothing line in order to increase the public’s awareness of sign language

ROSA LEE
Co-Founder and Art director of the word-of-hand magazine called KissFist which features all talents within the Deaf community

ADVOCATES CATEGORY

MARLEE MATLIN
Spokesperson on closed captioning, recently lobbied on behalf of HR 3101, “The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009,” for National Association of the Deaf which got passed in 2010

CHERYL WU
Licensed psychologist who focused her work with multicultural Deaf children and their families for over 26 years in mental health, education, and community-based settings in the United States as well as Taiwan

LEAH KATZ-HERNANDEZ
Blogger and political activist who received attention from CNN as well as NBC for her blog, recipient of the “Local Grassroots Leadership Award” by the Latino Inaugural Celebration Committee at the Organization of American States

JULES DAMERON
Established Deaf Women in Film (DWIF) with the sole purpose for supporting, recognizing, and helping all Deaf women cultivate their careers as well as signers associated with the film industry

ARTISTS CATEGORY

MARY RAPPAZZO
Painter who established the infamous one-eyed signature style which was shown at several art galleries in California and New York

TL FORSBERG
Singer who was featured in See What I’m Saying film, Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos concert, Much Music, MTV, City TV, and The New Music

AMY EDWARDS
Computer-generated artist who has worked on films such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Fantastic Four, and Bolt!

MICHELLE BANKS
Actress, Director, and Write who was featured in several television shows such as Soul Food, Girlfriends, Strong Medicine, and ESSENCE Magazine

HIDDEN PEARLS CATEGORY

KAREN PUTZ
Blogger for her own blog called “A Deaf Mom Shares her World,” writer for Chicago Moms, Disaboom, and Parenting Squad

MELISSA RICH
Equal communication access advocate who fought with the Lollapalooza, an annual musical festival in Chicago, to provide ASL interpreters for Deaf people

ERICA HOSSLER
Passionate advocate for Bilingualism and is heavily involved with Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program (EHDI)

LAURA LOPEZ
Graduated from DePaul University in 2009 with a M.Ed in Educational Leadership and is currently the Director of Little Arrows Early Childhood Center

THE BLACK PEARL AWARD

MARCELLA M. MEYER
Advocate, Leader, Warrior, Trailblazer, Mentor – many of the words used to describe Marcella M. Meyer (1925-2009). She was all of these and more.

She became GLAD’s first executive director, and in 1975, she became the Chief Executive Officer, a position that she held until retirement.

MMM, as she was known, challenged the status quo at every opportunity, using GLAD as her platform. She fought many legal battles over the years, including gaining deaf individuals the right to serve on a jury and securing a deaf victim an award in a police brutality case. She also fought for equal access to telephone services for the deaf in California, which resulted in the distribution of free TDDs to every deaf and hard of hearing person in the state. She was a key player in creating standards for interpreters that helped to improve the services provided to the deaf and hard of hearing. She made endless trips to Sacramento to lobby for needed legislation. Marcella was vocal about every issue relevant to the deaf and hard of hearing community.

In 2006 Marcella received the Alice Cogswell Award from Gallaudet University for “valuable service on behalf of deaf citizens.” When she accepted this award she marveled at how the world had changed for the deaf and hard of hearing.