Brooke Barnhill, Deafblindness - University of Utah

Brooke Barnhill has worked in the field of Special Education for 15 years. She earned her BA in Psychology in 2001 and her M.Ed in Special Education, specializing in Deafblindness, in 2005. Over the years, she has had the pleasure to work in a variety of roles within the field of special education. Brooke has worked as: a 1-to-1 aide to children with autism, a parent advisor in early intervention, a special education classroom teacher, a district-wide teacher, and as a statewide deaf-blind educational consultant. She found that each new opportunity brought more questions on how to best serve those that she worked with and is excited to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Utah.

Brooke’s main areas of interest include; early intervention to support families of infants and children who are deaf-blind, language acquisition for individuals with multiple impairments including sensory loss, and how to best teach care providers and educational teams to carry out best practices with fidelity. She hopes that her studies will yield results that not only answer important questions but will also provide resources that may help parents and teachers implement meaningful change in the lives of individuals who have disabilities, including deafblindness.