Assistant professor
Grand Rapids Community College
Owner
Access to ASL
Age: 32
Justine Bryant aims to raise awareness about the Deaf community through education, resources and communication.
Bryant, the owner of interpretation firm Access to ASL and an assistant professor at Grand Rapids Community College, said career success wouldn’t have been possible without the local Deaf community and the mentors who have been a “cornerstone in her life’s journey.”
“It’s those inequities that I’ve seen between the hearing world and the Deaf world that inspire me to make sure that there’s less of a gap, if not total equity, between these communities,” Bryant said.
Bryant’s interest in ASL started while volunteering in high school at a check-in table and was approached by deaf person. After facing a communication barrier, she was inspired to learn sign language and get involved in the Deaf community.
Bryant enrolled in ASL classes at GRCC and fell in love with it. She went on to become a national certified ASL interpreter and has been a professor at GRCC for six years.
As an assistant professor, Bryant grew GRCC’s ASL program by increasing course enrollment by nearly 20%, establishing a partnership for credit transfer between GRCC to Lansing Community College, and conducting high school outreach to promote dual enrollment.
It’s those inequities that I’ve seen between the hearing world and the Deaf world that inspire me to make sure that there’s less of a gap, if not total equity, between these communities.”
Additionally, Bryant helped the ASL One course count as a general education course rather than an elective. This fall semester, all four sections are full with about 108 students enrolled across the sections.
Outside of the college, Bryant is working with her longterm mentor, Rowan O’Dougherty, a GRCC colleague and one of her first deaf professors who recruited her to teach at GRCC, to further promote ASL resources in Grand Rapids. Bryant and O’Dougherty are creating training videos to help law enforcement and emergency services better interact with and serve people with hearing loss.
“We have been seeing some issues within the Deaf community of not being able to communicate with police and what happens, and there’s a fear that’s associated with that,” Bryant said. “(The training videos aim) to alleviate some of that stress within the Deaf community, but also to educate our local officers so they know how to best work with somebody who does have hearing loss.”
— Elizabeth Schanz
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