Sorensen hired as new Superintendent of North Dakota School for Deaf

(Bismarck, ND) — North Dakota State Faculty Superintendent Kirsten Baesler saying Monday that she has employed Donna Sorensen as the brand new superintendent of North Dakota’s Faculty for the Deaf and Useful resource Heart for the Deaf and Arduous of Listening to.

Sorensen started work on the Devils Lake college earlier this month. She has been an administrator at faculties serving the deaf in Montana, Washington, Alabama and Mississippi, together with eight years as outreach director and superintendent for the Montana Faculty for the Deaf and Blind in Nice Falls, from 2012 to 2020.

“We’re delighted, and lucky, to have an individual of Donna’s background and experience as the brand new superintendent of the Faculty and Useful resource Heart for the deaf,” mentioned Baesler in a launched assertion to WDAY Radio. “She brings a recent perspective and outlook to offering providers for North Dakotans who’re deaf or laborious of listening to.”

The varsity offers a complete tutorial program for deaf or laborious of listening to college students from preschool by means of grade 8. College students in grades 9-12 attend Devils Lake Excessive Faculty with help from interpreters and academics of the deaf.

“I’m excited to be becoming a member of the superb staff right here,” mentioned Sorensen. “I’m impressed with the work that’s occurring on the North Dakota Faculty for the Deaf/Useful resource Heart, and I look ahead to being a small a part of it.”

The college’s outreach program additionally offers toddler screening, signal language instruction, a referral service for signal language interpreters, workshops, session, and assessments for college students in North Dakota’s public faculties, and an grownup outreach program that helps to find out the person’s want for providers.

Sorensen grew up in Alabama. She holds a bachelor’s diploma in deaf schooling from the College of Montevallo in Montevallo, Ala., and earned a grasp’s diploma at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., a personal college that serves the deaf and laborious of listening to.

Other than her expertise in Montana, Sorensen has been director of the Birmingham regional middle for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, superintendent of the Mississippi Colleges for the Deaf and Blind in Jackson, and assistant principal and distance studying coordinator for the Washington Faculty for the Deaf in Vancouver. For 2 years, Sorensen was a deaf schooling teacher within the Peace Corps in Kenya.

Sorensen succeeds Dr. Connie Hovendick as superintendent. Hovendick served within the place for nearly eight years earlier than retiring in June.