TALLADEGA, Ala., Oct. 24, 2023 - In September 2023, the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Board of Trustees named Dennis Gilliam, Ed.D, the eighteenth AIDB President, following the retirement of John Mascia, Au.D.
A veteran educator with over 30 years of classroom and administrative experience in special education programs, Dr. Gilliam has served in multiple roles at AIDB over the last three decades, including Vice President of Instructional Programs.
"It is my distinct honor to be named the next President of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. I have spent nearly all of my life in commitment to AIDB and am dedicated to an expectation of excellence, ensuring the level of service we have come to expect from AIDB statewide and throughout the nation," said Dr. Gilliam. "It is a humbling realization that the AIDB Board of Trustees is entrusting me to lead this amazing institution that has provided me, and my family, limitless opportunities to grow, learn and succeed."
Dr. Gilliam's legacy at AIDB is personal as well as professional. He is the son of deaf parents; his father being educated at AIDB, and his mother being educated at the American School For The Deaf in Connecticut. His parents spent much of their professional careers at AIDB.
"AIDB is home," said Dr. Gilliam. "It's not just the place where, as a child, I'd lie on the gym floor and wait for my parents to get done with work but having the opportunity to work in construction at AIDB and then to transition into education and administration has given me a unique perspective for AIDB."
Dr. Gilliam earned a Doctor of Education, Deaf Studies Deaf Education from Lamar University; Educational Administration Certification from the University of Montevallo; Visual Impairment Education Certification from The University of Alabama at Birmingham; and a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Secondary Education, Mathematics from The University of Alabama. Dr. Gilliam also completed the STAR/CAEBER/AEBPD Schools on Bi-Lingual/Bi-Cultural (Deaf) Education program. Dr. Gilliam published The Relationship Between the Use of the Accelerated Reader Program and Reading Comprehension Scores on the STAR Reading Diagnostic and SAT-10 in 2011.
In his previous role as Vice President for Institutional Programs, Dr. Gilliam's focus was expanding AIDB's presence through the development of key partnerships that would serve AIDB's consumers. His work included new relationships with American Printing House, Gallaudet University, and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and to help benefit AIDB's students beyond graduation. Among Dr. Gilliam's goals is to see the building of the Board of Trustees' approved plans for a Student Life and Conference Center that will help connect AIDB's campuses, and other projects that will fit the Institute's strategic plan of enhancing programs for the students and constituents that AIDB serves across Alabama.
About AIDB:
Established in 1858, the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind is the nation's most comprehensive provider of education and services to individuals who are blind, deaf, deafblind or multidisabled. Last year, AIDB served over 31,000 individuals in Alabama, and across the United States, through programs on its five campuses in Talladega; AIDB North Campus in Decatur; and ten regional centers located in Birmingham, Decatur, Dothan, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Opelika, Shoals, Talladega, and Tuscaloosa. AIDB also operates Alabama Industries for the Blind (AIB), the state's largest employer of people who are blind. AIB is composed of manufacturing facilities in Talladega and Birmingham and base supply stores on military bases in Alabama and Georgia.
SOURCE Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
