McCaskill-Emerson, Carolyn

Born as Carolyn McCaskill; with her sister Jackie, became deaf at age 5, likely inherited (another sister, Angela, is late-deafened). Attended public schools in Mobile, AL, then transferred to the Alabama School for the Deaf. Graduated from Gallaudet College, where she won the Miss Gallaudet pageant in 1976; M.A. in rehabilitation counseling. First a counselor for the deaf at Houston (TX) Community College; later became a teacher in Gallaudet University's Deaf Studies department.