“You matter.” New Interim Assistant Dean draws on career prioritizing students

“Students in higher education just want to be accepted, loved, and respected. It’s about seeing people for who they are, and accepting them for who they are,” says Dr. Mary Perrodin-Singh, Gallaudet’s new Interim Assistant Dean for Graduate Education. 

A familiar face in Academic Advisement, Perrodin-Singh’s professional teaching career and educational background make her an approachable and invaluable resource that students and employees alike have come to rely on; she now brings this experience to Graduate Education.

“As an experienced educator with a collaborative spirit and a passion for student success, Dr. Mary Perrodin-Singh is a welcome addition to the Graduate School,” says beth gibbons, Associate Dean of Graduate Education, who will work closely with Perrodin-Singh. 

In her new role of Interim Assistant Dean, gibbons says Perrodin-Singh will “contribute to enrollment efforts with a focus on graduate student persistence; provide additional oversight for Graduate Student Resource Center programs and services; and support graduate faculty and students, offering guidance on academic standing, curriculum, and policy.”

Gallaudet’s graduate programs have been experiencing growth with no signs of slowing down. “There are new degree programs and current programs that have been strategically recruiting new students and graduating students. The team is doing an amazing job, and I am very happy to be a new addition,” says Perrodin-Singh.

Provost Dr. Khadijat K. Rashid, ’90 says, “Dr. Mary Perrodin-Singh is one of the most student-centered professionals I know at Gallaudet. Faculty, staff, and students have all commented on how open, available, and caring she is to our students, always working to find the best solution for whatever issues they face.”

Read below to learn more about Perrodin-Singh and her path to where she is now.

Drawing on rich family and school experiences

Perrodin-Singh’s adaptability may come from being raised in a large, multigenerational Deaf family in Louisiana. The seventh out of eight siblings, her whole family is Deaf, except for her father and one brother. She attended public school with and without interpreters, later attending the Louisiana School for the Deaf for high school. A four-time Spelling Bee regional champion,  Perrodin-Singh found school relatively easy as she easily navigated hearing, interpreted, mixed, residential, and deaf classrooms as a student. 

“I’ve been signing my whole life; my mom is Deaf and my dad is hearing, so I grew up naturally code-switching between using my voice and signing. This allowed me to work in the hearing world and understand how hearing people function. Gallaudet is the first Deaf space I’ve worked in, and it’s been wonderful,” she says.

Though she initially started at Gallaudet as an undergraduate college student “way back when,” she transferred to Texas Southern University after her first semester due to an issue with her own VR funding. She stayed in Texas, earning graduate degrees in Mental Health Counseling and Special Education and Teaching, often visiting her sister, Brenda Perrodin, ’95 & G-’07, who worked at Kendall School and had many connections to the DMV area. 

Investing in K-12 students

Perrodin-Singh experienced a variety of settings as a student, and she has had a similarly diverse career as an educator spanning 20 years, working in Houston, Texas, and in Rockville, Maryland.

After a couple of years of teaching kindergarten and second grade, she realized that elementary school wasn’t the right fit for her, but she found her stride teaching high school. “It was great! I love working with high school kids and stayed in that space for the rest of my teaching career,” she says. Perrodin-Singh chose to work in mainstream programs because there are fewer Deaf and hard of hearing role models available to deaf students in those settings. She taught both deaf and hearing students in Deaf and special education programs, and subjects such as Spanish, History, and PE. She has also worked as an itinerant teacher and as a counselor.

Perrodin-Singh is grateful she decided to obtain an EdD from Lamar University in Deaf Studies and Deaf Education in 2024 even though for her plans in K-12 education, her two master’s degrees were sufficient. She says, “As a Deaf person, I know that education is our key to securing a place for ourselves in this world. It has opened the door to this amazing opportunity for me in higher education. I know that it will create many spaces for our students here at Gallaudet!”

Heading to higher ed 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Perrodin-Singh retired from the Montgomery County Public School system when she was encouraged to work at Gallaudet as an Academic Advisor. She wasn’t yet ready for retirement, and so she decided to try it out.

“I was always curious about working in the higher education sphere. I fell in love with the job, the atmosphere, and the people. Students bring me back to life again and make me feel young,” she says, laughing.

Working in Texas and then Maryland in K-12 settings prepared her well. “Both states use IEPs and 504s, but the structures look totally different…Ultimately, the student gets the same service, yet the processes to get there are so different,” she explains. She applies this knowledge to her work at Gallaudet, where students come from 50 states and beyond. “I have to navigate a wide diversity of needs that students have, which means that the service I provide will have to be different, too. Just because I’m dealing with Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) funding, the kind of service I provide may vary, because of the different states involved,” she explains. 

Perrodin-Singh also emphasizes the importance of relationships with families as a commonality she’s found across education settings, saying, “We need to allow parents to see that we are treating their kids as if they were our own. When parents see that we love and value their children, then they are able to let go and let them grow.”

With her strong background in K-12 and undergraduate education, Perrodin-Singh is excited about working at the graduate level. Ultimately, her approach is unchanged when working with students. “Just because we are in different positions, it doesn’t mean we are different. My knowledge is based on my frames, and theirs is based on theirs–we are equal to one another. I want to make sure that person feels special and to let them know: ‘You’re important. You matter.’”

“Personally, I feel that our graduate students could not have a better advocate on their side. Dr. Perrodin-Singh gets it, period,” says Rashid.

---

Learn about the wide range of graduate programs Gallaudet offers.