Patrick Graham

Dr. Patrick Graham is currently an Associate Professor and Department Chair of the Master of Science in Secondary Education for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (MSSE) at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The MSSE program trains teacher candidates and places them in schools all over the United States and abroad.

Deaf since birth, Patrick is bilingual in both American Sign Language and English. His research interests include language deprivation in young deaf children, instructional strategies for educational equity and STEM education. Patrick obtained his PhD in Educational Theory and Practice from the University of Georgia, studying under Dr. Joseph Tobin as he headed the project Deaf Kindergartens in Three Countries: Japan, France, and the United States. This project studied how children developed cultural norms in both deaf and national cultures.

Patrick got his start in Deaf Education as a Kindergarten teacher at the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf. He saw there were many deaf children who came to Kindergarten without any early literacy and numeracy skills. He became vocal about the needs of stronger early intervention and learning, especially for minority children and children with disabilities. Patrick advocated for stronger educational awareness in this area. Patrick currently serves on two different boards for the American Society of Deaf Children (ASDC) and Signs and Smiles (SaS). His main focus for serving on these two boards is ensuring strong support for deaf and hard of hearing children worldwide. Patrick is passionate about educational equity and social justice. He currently lives in Rochester, New York with his husband and three adopted sons. Two of his sons are deaf and all three sons are bilingual in ASL and English.