Kathryn Woodcock received her Bachelor of Applied Science and Master of Applied Science degrees from the University of Waterloo in Canada, with a specialization in human systems design. For eight years Woodcock was Vice President of Hospital Services at Centenary Hospital in Scarborough, Ontario. At the time of her Edmund Lyon lecture, Woodcock was a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto in the Department of Industrial Engineering. She was also the first deaf president of the Canadian Hearing Society and a founding member of the Canadian Deafened Persons Association. Her work deals with breaking down barriers by designing systems in public and private spaces to accommodate people with disabilities.
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Born in Iran in 1947, Farid Bozorgi contracted polio as a child, which left him deaf. With limited educational options after elementary school, he practiced his artistic skills by drawing from magazines. His artistic abilities impressed Iranian Princess Shams, who gifted Bozorgi a plane ticket to the United States and money to continue his education. Bozorgi enrolled in the Detroit School for the Deaf and learned ASL. Later he attended NTID, where he studied communication design. After graduating from RIT in 1976, Bozorgi gained employment as a Senior Commercial Artist at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems. He died in California in December 1990, soon after his Lyon lecture at NTID.
More about this speaker...After moving from Indonesia to the United States, Tan attended Gallaudet University and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology/social work. Following his undergraduate studies, Tan received his master's degree from Boston University in rehabilitation counseling. Tan's work focused on the counseling and rehabilitation of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind.
More about this speaker...Linda Bradford was born deaf and attended the John Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles, California, at a young age. She was mainstreamed in public schools as a child. Active in sports, she attended California Polytechnic Institute, where she studied physical education and mathematics. She competed in the Deaflympics, winning gold medals in 1969 for track and 1973 for volleyball. After graduating from college, she taught physical education at California State University at Northridge for five years. She returned to graduate school in New Mexico and studied for a doctorate in the computer field. At the time of her Edmund Lyon lecture, Bradford was Associate Systems Programmer and lead operator for Honeywell.
More about this speaker...Frank Hochman was born deaf in New York City in 1935. After high school, Hochman went on to the City College of New York, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1958. Hochman wanted to go on to medical school but could not find a school that would accept him because of his deafness, so he worked as a chemist for a number of years for St. Joseph's Hospital in Queens and for the New York Department of Health. Hochman applied to medical schools again in 1971 and was accepted to Rutgers Medical School at the age of 37. He completed his master's degree in 1974 and earned his M.D. in 1976. After completing residencies in two California hospitals, Hochman began private practice. He was the founder of the Society of Hearing Impaired Physicians.
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George Kononenko, who was prelingually deaf, was born in New Jersey, where he attended the Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf for both elementary and high school education. Having an interest in sciences and engineering, Kononenko then entered NTID's mechanical technology program. Following his graduation, Kononenko enrolled in RIT's College of Engineering, where he graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering technology. In 1985, Kononenko was the Research and Development Project Leader for Personal Computer Instrumentation at Hewlett-Packard. His Lyon Lectureship presentation was titled "My Experience as a Deaf Contributor."
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