Dana Miles teaches work experience and applied bilingual language arts (BLA) to grades 9 – 12 at the Washington School for the Deaf (WSD) in Vancouver, Washington. Her classes focus on helping her students become bilingual in American Sign Language and English and career and life ready. Miles uses real-world scenarios such as resume writing, finding independent housing, navigating transportation systems and more to help her students achieve work success and become confident adults who understand their rights. Miles also sits on the statewide transition committee with the Washington Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth outreach team, which develops learning materials for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students across the state.

Miles is a second-generation Deaf educator. She attended WSD, where her parents were also teachers, and graduated from Gallaudet University with a Bachelor of Arts in secondary education and English in 1998 and a Master of Arts in Deaf education in 2000. Miles learned about the many obstacles that Deaf people face from her parents and through her work at Washington Vocational Services. Because her parents provided her with a language-rich environment in American Sign Language and English, Miles didn’t have to endure the same hardships many Deaf people do.

These experiences motivated Miles to return to WSD as a teacher in the transition program. She works tirelessly to equip her students for the world by teaching them to advocate for themselves and to build a more inclusive society by expanding community partnerships and work opportunities.