Featured Faculty
Jessica Trussell
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
DR. TRUSSELL’S BELIEF THAT ALL INSTRUCTORS ARE READING TEACHERS IS THE FOUNDATION FOR HER RESEARCH AGENDA INVESTIGATING EFFECTIVE CONTENT-AREA (MATH, SCIENCE, OR SOCIAL STUDIES) READING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES. HER PH.D. IN EDUCATING STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONALITIES FOCUSED ON READING AND WRITING INSTRUCTION FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING (DHH) LEARNERS WAS AWARDED IN 2014 BY GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY WHERE SHE BEGAN HER RESEARCH ON THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LATIN AND GREEK AFFIXES AND ROOTS TO ENHANCE CONTENT-AREA VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION. IN 2015, DR. TRUSSELL ACCEPTED AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR POSITION AT RIT/NTID AND JOINED THE CENTER FOR EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS.
Dr. Trussell is a certified teacher of the DHH with twelve years of experience teaching DHH students from age four to adulthood. She conducts her research in K-12 and NTID classrooms with DHH readers of all grade-levels and ages. At the preschool level, Dr. Trussell has developed an emergent evidence-base supporting the use of questioning during storybook reading to increase DHH preschooler’s vocabulary knowledge. At the late-elementary, secondary, and post-secondary level, her research supports teaching word parts to increase older DHH reader’s general, science, and social studies vocabulary knowledge. During her time at NTID/RIT, her research program has grown to include reading comprehension instructional strategies, such as prediction and summary writing. In the summer of 2019, she will continue investigating effective reading comprehension strategies for DHH readers as co-director of the Summer Transition Education Program at NTID.
Dr. Trussell’s long -term goal is to inform the field of deaf education about effective vocabulary learning and reading comprehension instructional interventions to support DHH students’ reading skills thereby increasing their opportunity to engage in science, technology, engineering, and math graduate studies and careers.
Jessica Trussel
Assistant Professor
National Technical Institute for the Deaf