M. Lynn Woolsey, Ph.D., Board Certified Behavior Analyst
I guess I’m a bit of a late bloomer. I taught deaf and hard of hearing students for many years and then became certified as an administrator. I have a Bachelor’s degree in deaf education and a Master’s degree in Early Intervention. One day, with so many misbehaving children sent to my office by teachers who didn’t know how to manage them, I decided to quit my job, get a Ph.D. and figure out what I needed to do to continue to make a difference in the lives of deaf and hard of hearing children.
I received my Ph.D. in Education from The Ohio State University in 2001. I studied deaf students with emotional and behavioral disorders. As a late-deafened person I thought I might be able to see their plight through different eyes. Indeed, I did. In my dissertation I found that misbehavior (like beauty) may lie in the eye of the beholder. Hearing adults who did not sign well identified more behaviors as aberrant than hearing or Deaf adults who could sign fluently. Could misbehavior in deaf students be related to language fluency--in either the student or the adult? That “ah-ha” moment propelled me to begin a series of research studies on the effects of teaching behaviors on the achievement of deaf and hard of hearing students. Through one federal research grant I was able to observe extraordinary teachers of the deaf and use a computerized data collection tool to examine their teaching behaviors and the behaviors of both high and low performing students. It was three years ago when I first came to Tennessee and fell in love with the countryside and the people. (I can live without the ticks).
I moved to the University of Tennessee from the University of North Florida in the summer of 2006. I now serve as the Director of the Center on Deafness. I’m most excited about combining research and practice while working in a Center that provides an array of research and collaborative partnership opportunities. We help professionals and families identify babies with hearing loss and then provide parent training and services to those families. The Center on Deafness oversees intervention programs for young children throughout the state. The Center on Deafness is also home to the Postsecondary Education Consortium project. In this project we serve deaf and hard of hearing students in colleges and universities throughout the United States.
I’ve been fortunate to have done research under two federal grants. I’ve written articles, a book, two chapters for a book, and am in the process of writing the newest book on Curriculum and Instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students.
I look forward to a bright future at the University of Tennessee’s Center on Deafness.
Contact
Information
Dr. M. Lynn Woolsey
Assistant Professor
Director of the Center on Deafness
A213 Jane and David Bailey Education Complex
1126 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-3442
Phone: 865-974-4137 (v/tty)
Fax: 865-974-3522
lwoolsey@utk.edu
Contact CEHHS
335 Claxton Complex
1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
Phone: 865-974-2201
Fax: 865-974-8718