Lauren Ridloff
EdD, CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd
Lauren began her meteoric rise as an actor just five years ago. Before that, she won the title of Miss Deaf America and was a kindergarten teacher in Manhattan for a decade. After leaving that job to care for her two young children, she was hired in 2016 to tutor director Kenny Leon in American Sign Language as he readied the Broadway revival of Children of a Lesser God. After working together for months, Kenny and the producers concluded that Lauren was the ideal and only choice for the lead. She pulled it off with resounding success, including multiple rave reviews from the New York Times and a Tony nomination. Lauren soon became a series regular on the long-running AMC series, The Walking Dead. Then, she became the first Deaf superhero opposite Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjani in Marvel’s worldwide hit, Eternals. Lauren received a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough award recognizing the most promising stars of film and television.
Rebecca Alexander
English Teacher, Ron Clark Academy; Author
Rebecca Alexander is an author, psychotherapist, disability rights advocate, group fitness instructor, and extreme athlete who is almost entirely blind and deaf. She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in New York City. Rebecca was born with a rare genetic disorder called Usher syndrome and has lost both her sight and hearing since childhood. Now, at 42, with only a sliver of sight and total deafness, without the use of her cochlear implants, in addition to narrating the PBS American Master’s biopic documentary “Becoming Helen Keller” (Oct 2021), Rebecca has been featured on many TV shows and in numerous publications, has been honored with prestigious awards for her advocacy work, presented for TEDx, and has been the keynote speaker for many esteemed companies and organizations. Among her many extraordinary feats, Rebecca participated in the 600-mile AIDS Lifecycle ride, summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, swam from Alcatraz to shore in the San Francisco Bay, and competed in the Civilian Military Combine (CMC) races.