2 of 8 | Stephanie Smith Albert | Rochester, NY | Deaf Women Herstory Month

Image Description: As a light skin black deaf woman, Stephanie wore silver infinity heart necklace, diamond hoop earrings, eyeglasses and the grey-blue split neck blouse with silver sparkling dots; smiled; and stood in front of maple wood office storage cabinet in her former office.

Bio:

Stephanie was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She became deaf at the age of five, the culprit–spinal meningitis. Stephanie had an Associate degree in Accounting from National Technical Institute for the Deaf (1988), a Bachelor’s in Marketing from Wright State University (1994) and a Masters in School Counseling and Guidance from Gallaudet University. She was a commencement speaker at several Deaf Schools, a featured speaker at NTID for Women Series Month and a Guest Speaker at Greater Indianapolis Deaf Club for Black History Month.  Stephanie said that her love for motivational speaking begun after she had participated and competed in the Miss Black Deaf America in 1998 at the National Black Deaf Advocates Conference in Indianapolis. She was 30 and the only full-figured contestant—took guts to join and compete against young and skinny beauties!

Stephanie worked as resident advisor and school counselor at Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, St. Rita School for the Deaf and Georgia School for the Deaf and Director of Student Life at Ohio School for the Deaf. She moved to Rochester in July 2017 to work at NTID as the first Director of NTID Diversity and Inclusion. She passed away on October 4, 2018 in Rochester. She was married to Tim Albert for ten years and they have a black mixed breed Beagle/Labrador named Lucky Smith Albert.