Ernest E. Hairston, Ph.D., Founder & Honorary Chairman of the Board, grew up in the coal mining town of Stotesbury, West Virginia.  At the age of 5, he contracted spinal meningitis which rendered him severely deaf.  Through a combination of hard work, family support, mentoring, and scholarships, he became the first Black deaf person to receive a doctoral degree from Gallaudet University.  Dr. Hairston retired from the U.S. Department of Education after more than 40 years of public service in various capacities, including as Chief of the Captioning Adaptation Branch, and as Associate Division Director for the National Initiative Team within OSEP’s Research to Practice.

Dr. Hairston wrote Black and Deaf in America – Are We That Different? with Linwood Smith in 1983.  He is one of the founders of National Black Deaf Advocates, the oldest and largest organization of deaf and hard of hearing Black people in the United States.  He served on the Board of Trustees for the Maryland School for the Deaf.  He is a Director of Artistic Sign Language and an advisor to the Department of Very Special Arts and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.