Paul G. Jacobs

I have six tertiary degrees, am a published author and an award winning journalist. The author of five peer-reviewed articles, I have presented papers and workshops – including a lecture tour - in America, England, Spain, New Zealand and throughout Australia. I published a book in America in 2007 about my life. It is called ‘Neither-nor”. The name means neither a hearing person nor a person who identifies as culturally Deaf (i.e., belongs to the Deaf community). I wrote this book to explain many challenges facing people living with deafness. Read the prologue at http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/excerpts/NN.html. I have a PhD and Masters in Education from the University of Melbourne. My PhD research was with people from America, England and Australia who had achieved professional and social success. There were two main findings: 1) people who are deaf use similar thinking strategies and social skills as hearing people to maximise their potential (e.g., reframing negative thoughts); plus 2) people who are deaf use specific thinking strategies and social skills to overcome challenges related to deafness (e.g., asking people to move positions in order to lip read them). In 2009 and 2010, I published a column of ten articles for an American online magazine. The column was also published in Spanish with an audience in Spain and South America. Written for parents of deaf children as well as for deaf people themselves, the column is about proactive thinking strategies and social skills that I researched in my PhD. These skills help to deal with deafness related challenges. The column's introduction is at: http://nc.agbell.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=505. In 2010, the column won an award granted by the International Academy of Visual Arts. My mission in life is to work with others to improve the social participation of people living with deafness and their families through my research, writing and advocacy.