Debbie Golos receives education award for her support of Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities
Debbie Golos, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, received an Education Excellence Award from the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing at its Lobby Day at the Capitol on March 7.
Golos is the coordinator of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) licensure and MEd program in the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research areas include developing and evaluating the effects of educational media in ASL on young Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and hearing children’s language and literacy skills, examining the portrayal of Deaf people in media and literature from a cultural perspective, and exploring alternative routes to literacy development that meet the needs of visual learners, particularly Deaf children.
In addition to these research areas, she is also working on mindfulness and the well-being of individuals, including teachers and their students. Her research areas and studies have a crucial impact on supporting the needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.
One of her graduate students made the following comment: “As a PhD student in special education, I am currently studying how mindfulness facilitates improving the well-being of students with and without special needs. Thanks to her, I will be a successful person in the future who is doing notable work to improve the lives of students with special needs. Dr. Golos is one of the great educators that I met. She is a respectful, understanding, and supportive person. She touched one of her students’ life—mine—and gave me an opportunity to be here. You cannot know how much this means to me. I sincerely want Dr. Golos to receive this award to represent my gratitude for all her support, valuable time, encouragement, and guidance.”