Jane Fernandes

NoJane K. Fernandes is the former Provost and Vice President of Gallaudet University and the current Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Born deaf, Jane K. Fernandes has surmounted incredible obstacles to become an education professional who moves easily between deaf and hearing communities. Also fluent in written Italian and French, Jane K. Fernandes earned her undergraduate degree in French and Comparative Literature at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

After winning the Underwood Memorial Poetry Prize for two years in a row as well as the Comparative Literature Book prize for her senior thesis, Jane K. Fernandes moved to The University of Iowa where she earned her PhD in Comparative Literature in 1986. After being introduced to American Sign Language (ASL) at the age of 23, Jane K. Fernandes immersed herself in the deaf community. Her passion for extending educational opportunities to deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind students led her to work in the American Sign Language education programs of several academic centers across the country, including Gallaudet University, Northeastern University, Kapi’olani Community College, and eventually the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind.

After five years at the Hawaiian center, Jane K. Fernandes had implemented significant changes, increasing enrollment ten-fold and turning the small school into a statewide resource center for students who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, partially sighted, and deaf-blind. When Jane K. Fernandes took her talents to Gallaudet University, the world’s leading deaf education institution in 1995, she filled the role of Vice President. After five years as Vice President, Jane K. Fernandes was promoted to University Provost. In 2008, she was offered the position of Provost at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. She is currently the only deaf provost at a hearing university in the United States.