Faculty

Jennifer Catalano

Associate Professor, Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Deaf Education

Professional Profile

Dr. Catalano has taught at Flagler since 2018 and was promoted to associate professor in 2024.

She is the director of the graduate and undergraduate programs in Deaf Education and the coordinator for the ASL minor. Prior to joining the faculty at Flagler College, Dr. Catalano taught students in preschool through high school for 14 years as an itinerant and self-contained classroom teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing students and in a variety of general and special education settings.

At Flagler College, Dr. Catalano is the secretary for the Institutional Review Board committee, a longtime member of the Faculty Senate, and the chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for Innovative Online and Hybrid Instruction.

Education:

Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Arizona
M.A. in Deaf Education from the University of Arizona
B.S. in Elementary Education from the State University of New York College at Cortland

Grants and Awards:

Henry Flagler Award , Flagler College (2025)
Excellence in Diversity Award, Flagler College (2022)
Inclusion Teacher of the Year, Glynn Archer Elementary School (2008-2009)

Teaching

Graduate Program

Foundations of Education of the DHH: History, Trends, and Culture
Introduction to Research Seminar
Action Research for the Classroom Teacher
Practicum in Working with Students who are D/HH (Summer Residency)
Working with Diverse Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Undergraduate Program

Reading/Emergent Literacy
Principles of Speech and Hearing for the Classroom Teacher
Supervision for Deaf Education Practicum
Supervision in Elementary/Deaf Education Internship
Deaf Ecosystem – FlagSHIP
American Sign Language 1

Research

Dr. Catalano’s areas of expertise are high-leverage teaching practices, individualized student instruction through flexible instructional arrangements, literacy, action research, and teacher coaching.

Publications

Rivera, M. C., Catalano, J. A., Branum-Martin, L., Lederberg, A. R., & Antia, S. D. (2023). The quality of teaching behaviors in learning environments of DHH students. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(2), 230-244. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enad046

Catalano, J., Weirick, W., Hasko, J., & Antia, S. (2022). Teacher coaching: Increasing deaf students’ active engagement through flexible instructional arrangements. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 27(1), 73-88. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enab031

Antia, S. D., Catalano, J. A., Rivera, M. C., & Creamer, C. (2021). Explicit and contextual vocabulary intervention: Effects on word and definition learning. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 26(3), 381-394. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enab002

Catalano, J. (2020). Literacy and academic engagement in learners who are deaf and hard of hearing. In S. R. Easterbrooks & H. M. Dostal (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of deaf studies in literacy. Oxford University Press.

Presentations/Workshops

Explicit Contextualized Vocabulary Instruction for DHH Students:

2024 Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
2024 Best Practice in Mainstream Education of DHH Students at NTID
2024 Pinellas County Teachers of the Deaf
2023 VA Opening Doors – Unlocking Potential (Keynote)
2023 and 2019 Florida Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Conferences
2019 Northeast Florida ToDHH Roundtable
2019 Hawaii School for the Deaf

Increasing Deaf Students’ Active Engagement through Flexible Instructional Arrangements

2024 TA Live! RMTC-DHH
2022-2023 Utah School for the Deaf
2022 Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf
2021 23^rd International Congress on the Education of the Deaf
2020 Florida Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Conference

Quality of the Learning Environment

2021 23^rd International Congress on the Education of the Deaf
2020 The Association of College Educators - Deaf and Hard of Hearing 46^th Annual Meeting

Action Research for Teachers of DHH Students

2024 Florida Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Conference
2020 The Association of College Educators - Deaf and Hard of Hearing 46^th Annual Meeting

More Information

(904) 438-3431 (VP)

Professional Organizations

Florida Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students (FEDHH)
Association of College Educators- Deaf Hard of Hearing (ACE-DHH)
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
American Society for Deaf Children (ASDC)
American Educational Research Association (AERA)

Office hours

Tuesday: 10 a.m.- noon

Thursday: 2-4 p.m.

By appointment

Athletics