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GDC Staff

JOEL RUNNELS -                                                      GDC Executive Director
A native Minnesotan, was first exposed to the Deaf when studying speech, language and hearing during undergraduate degree, to better understand his own dysfluent speech. It was during this time that Joel quickly learned American Sign Language (ASL), developed a positive repoire with the Deaf Community, and left his “dream” of being a speech therapist to serve the Deaf World. He was since worked as a volunteer and an “expatriot” in a variety of governmental and non-governmental agencies in Hawai’i, Jamaica, Uganda and Kenya to develop quality, appropriate and sustainable education for the Deaf in poorer communities. Joel enjoys reading and writing, music and dancing, traveling, sampling local beers, surfing (Hawai’i & Jamaica), riding motorcycles (Uganda & Kenya) and eating too much food with too many chili peppers (everywhere!).

STEPHEN GACHUHI -                                        Kenya Programme Director
Stephen joined GDC Kenya as Programme Coordinator in October 2007. Prior that, he had worked for 13 years with CARE International, where he was the Sports & Youth Development team leader in Dadaab, one of Africa’s largest refugee camps. Stephen is a founding member of Kenya National Association of the Deaf (KNAD), with whom he served as Information Officer for 4 years. While at KNAD, Stephen partnered with Sweden’s SDR Project to develop leadership, advocacy and organizational capacities of the Deaf community in Kenya.  Stephen was one of the first few Deaf Kenyans to benefit from the American education system when he attended Lexington High School for the Deaf in Queens, New York, in the early eighties. On his return to Kenya, he worked as a librarian and documentalist, whilst pursuing private studies.Stephen became Deaf at age 11 and attended local Deaf schools before he got his lucky break to study in New York. In those early years, there were no high school or college opportunities for the Deaf in Kenya.  Pained by past inequalities in Deaf education, Stephen is determined to ensure that the new generation of Deaf Kenyans has access to quality education, training and professional development opportunities through sponsorship schemes, leadership and role modeling.