Bern Jones, Ed.D. CSC

Program Specialist

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Dr. Jones started his career at the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind as a teacher of deaf students. He has been Principal at the Nebraska School for the Deaf, Administrator at the Regional Day School for the Deaf in the El Paso Public Schools, and Assistant Dean of Instruction at the SouthWest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf in Texas.

For 20 years, Dr. Jones taught sign language interpreting classes. Most of this experience is in traditional face-to-face (F2F) classes at Johnson County Community College in Kansas. In addition, he taught educational interpreters for five years from 12 different states in both F2F and distance learning classes within the Educational Interpreting Certificate Program (EICP) housed at Front Range Community College in greater Denver, Colorado. Dr. Jones is currently the Director of Assessment System for K-12 Educational Interpreters (ASK12) with the Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education (TAESE) at Utah State University in Logan.

Dr. Jones has served as a state evaluator of interpreters for the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (State Certification, KQAS) and the Kansas State Department of Education (Educational Interpreting Performance Assessment, EIPA).

Dr. Jones earned his B.A. in Education of the Deaf and M.Ed. in Educational Administration at the University of Arizona, holds the Comprehensive Skills Certificate (CSC) from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf; and earned his Doctor of Education Degree in Special Education from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Jones is interested in the roles and responsibilities, qualifications, and education of sign language interpreters working in K-12 public school settings and has done research in this area. He is a passionate advocate of K-12 interpreters and the improvement of both their interpreting skills and knowledge in the field.