Iowa’s new head of deaf and blind schools is Lewis & Clark alum

The Iowa Board of Regents has named Steve Gettel (MEd ’81) as head of the state’s deaf and blind schools. A committee of educators, administrators, and parents chose Gettel for his 30 years of experience in deaf education.“Steve Gettel will bring to Iowa a strong combination of leadership skills in the education of our students at both the School for the Deaf and the Braille School,” Regents President Bruce Rastetter told the Des Moines Register.

Gettel is a graduate of Lewis & Clark’s special education program for deaf and hard-of-hearing. Begun in 1952, the program prepared educators to work with hearing impaired students. It graduated 800 students before it was discontinued in 2000, and was one of the northwest’s top resources for teachers, administrators, support service personnel, deaf adults, and parents of children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Gettel has been a teacher of the deaf since 1981. He worked for 13 years as the director of the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls, where he collaborated with 17 constituent groups on a strategic plan to improve statewide services for deaf and blind children. He also led the school through national and regional accreditation by the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf.

Read the Des Moines Register story here.