In The Spotlight: Vicki Shapiro

This month’s spotlight is being shined on one of our newest board members, Vicki Shapiro. Vicki became a  member of our Board of Directors last year.

Vicki was born Deaf in Menasha, Wisconsin. She used total communication throughout her school years in the Oshkosh Area School District. After she graduated from Oshkosh North High School she attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, New York. She graduated from NTID with a degree in Data Processing. It was there she met her husband, Martin, who is also Deaf. Vicki decided to move back to Wisconsin and get married.

Vicki and Martin went ahead and started growing their family with four beautiful children. Vicki managed her family for 8 years before deciding to go to work as a Deaf Consultant for Fox Valley Technical College. She helps prepare students enrolled in the Education Interpreting Program. She works with students to improve their expressive and receptive skills, and has been doing this since 1997. Vicki truly enjoys working with the students.

Vicki recently decided to continue her own education by enrolling last year at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley.

Vicki heard about Deaf Empowerment from Faye Jordan’s presentation at Deaf Club a while back. She had felt there were issues that needed to be addressed within the Community, and someone suggested that she join Deaf Empowerment to do just that! Vicki feels strongly that children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing need exposure to other successful Deaf adults. The children need role models! She also feels it is important that the hearing community gain access to the Deaf world, and have an awareness of Deaf Culture, so that the needs of the Deaf community can be met.