Board of Trustees

VP: (425) 329-8433
Email: allie.joiner@cdhl.wa.gov

Allie Joiner a.k.a “AJ” is from District 1. She  was born to hearing parents  in south part of Arkansas . She went to Arkansas School for the Deaf.  After 8 years there she got her blessing from her mother/father to be  transferred to Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge.  After taking 2 years of Algebra, she entered Gallaudet College in 1952.  Her major was Education for the Deaf.

Allie taught at South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind in a small town, Spartanburg for 2 years and 6 years at New Mexico School for the Deaf.  She taught for 5 more years at Colorado School for the Deaf.  Even though she enjoyed the kids, she was not sure of staying in the field. She decided to try for a different career so she attended University of Arizona and got her M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling with Deaf Adults.  She chose Seattle for her internship with DVR over St. Louis and Rochester.  Allie might have ended up at NTID in Rochester but she disliked the snowy East and she thought of going up to Alaska at that time.

Fate changed when Seattle Hearing Speech Center offered Allie a job as a vocational counselor with Deaf Adult Services. This was pivotal in life, because she lived all her life in a closed community, never was exposed to discrimination of her people. When she tried to do job placement of deaf clients in businesses in Capitol Hill she hit the brick wall, realizing that fight for rights was needed to be done. During that time, she also was on the Local Evaluation Team assessing interpreters as a RSC interpreter. The women’s movement was rampant at that time which led her to activism. She learned about lobbying  (? testifying better word?) in Olympia  She had to scream at the DSHS brass and was successful in getting a program for distributed children. In 1984 Allie was in a group of protesters that  organized and succeeded in getting Governor Spellman to rescind the appointment of a superintendent at a school fighting to get a Deaf one..

Allie shook hands with every Governor.  Currently Allie thinks Gov. Inslee has been very very supportive of our cause for quality education. She attended many workshops and became involved with the Governor’s Committee of Handicapped and Employment Issues (old term) before it changed to GCDE. .

Allie decided to try for CSUN Leadership Training in the Area of Deafness in Northridge CA and she received a M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision , however she felt she was not suited for this type of job. She was inspired by her Political Science professor who saw  Allie as an advocate.  Allie was not sure if advocates would get paid in the  late 70’s – little she knew she would become the first paid advocate in Seattle for the  Hearing Impaired in 1980.  Her first advocacy work was filing a complaint against the City of Seattle because she was discriminated against for that job!  The rest is history.

During the Troubleshooters year, Allie received intensive training from a well known and respected parent activist, Katie Dolan.  She was on of the parents who spearheaded HB 90 here in the State of Washington that eventually led to the passage of PL 94-142

Thanks to Deaf Services Coordinator, Leon Curtis, for his proposal for community service centers for 4 centers (Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver and Spokane) Allie was involved in the long process obtaining Referendum 37 monies for CSCSDHH.   After one year with Troubleshooters (Washington State Advocacy System) she worked as a Consumer Advocate in the Legal Advocacy Project at CSCDHH. And thanks to Temmie Brier, Legal Advocate, a wonderful mentor for Allie, Temmie would take her to many legal workshops. Twelve years at CSCDHH permitted her to travel all over the state supporting parents of Deaf children in making PL 94-142 work for them.  NAD workshops on Section 504 were great, too.  Allie attended many workshops on PL94-142, State Law Against Discrimination, and ADA.

After 12 years at CSCDHH Allie worked at Tacoma Coalition of Individuals with
Disabilities Center as Deaf Services Coordinator for 5 years before transferring to Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services  for another 9 years as Community Advocate.

In December 2007 Allie retired only to accept a part time job one month later at Deaf Blind Service Center as Senior Citizen Advocacy Specialist.  She is still at it, going on 15 years.   Everyone asks when she will FINALLY retire. She does not know; she will see how it goes.  She is still on the board at WSD now called Center on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth (new name now that it is a state level board.) She is still involved with the Medical Interpreting Task Force.

Allie shares a condo with Estie Provow (also Deaf) in North Lynnwood. They have been together for 53 years. They finally got recognized officially in 2013 thanks to the law that was enacted.  They enjoy playing Aunts with extended family who they practically raised. All nieces-nephews went on to universities.