Women Network

The goal of Building Bridges is to improve accessibility to resources, find who is deaf friendly, and get discounts for deaf women.

We can and should connect with any woman or hearing-owned businesses.  Doing this opens up our world to more possibility and opportunity, and will gain additional customers for deaf business owners.

The main activity of Building Bridges programs is to host networking events, discover what women want and need, then take steps to help make it happen.  A GDW representative will find online or local resources to meet those wants and needs, making sure they are deaf friendly and accessible with their online videos, staff education, get special discounts for deaf customers, and so on. 

If the business is considered as deaf friendly, we will let the community know about their service and any special discounts.  We help them to boost their clients and we help deaf to enjoy better, accessible service.  A bridge has been built!

Building Bridges also connects deaf to deaf, where we tell one woman about another deaf woman across the US who can help her with what she needs.

Would you like to become part of our Building Bridges program, either as a networking event hostess or partner? Contact us today!

Our networking hosts:

• Sofia Seitchik, Doylestown, PA
• Regina Kiperman-Kiselgof, Rochester, NY
• Liya Yihedgo, Riverside, CA
• Irina Normatov, New York City, NY

Sofia Seitchik

Global Deaf Women Founder

Global Deaf Women

sofia@globaldeafwomen.com

Sofia Seitchik’s vision is to give inspiration and support and provide the best resources and opportunities for networking and growth.  Her workshop “How to Design Your Life?“ at the Global Deaf Women Retreat last year was the most popular, receiving rave reviews. 

 

Sofia grew up in Russia, surviving severe oppression before moving to New York City at age 16. She was told that she would not be able to learn a new language, attain higher education, or get a job without her hearing.  She proved them wrong when she was the first of her family to get a job in America without being able to read or speak either English or ASL, and when she graduated with a BA in Communication Arts at Gallaudet University.  

 

Her experience is profiled in “Train Go Sorry” by Leah H. Cohen.  She will not let any challenge slow her down and is always striving for the best in life. 

 

 

Regina Kiperman-Kiselgof

Exclusive Member

Bio coming soon

 

Liya Yihedgo

Liya Yihedgo was born in Ethiopia and attended Alpha School for the Deaf, in Bole District in Addis Ababa until 8th grade.  She went to hearing high school until 10th grade without sign language interpreters.

She moved to the United State of America in 1990 for a better education.   Graduated St.Rita High School then continued higher education in Gallaudet University majoring in American Sign Language.  

Gallaudet sponsored her to travel back to her homeland, Ethiopia to provide a Leadership Training Program to the Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf members. During her college years, she trekked around Europe. After graduation, she went back to Ethiopia to volunteer teaching in preschool administrated by Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Her husband, Rene Visco and she got married in the traditional Ethiopian wedding in Ethiopia on the 8th of June, 2002.

Currently, she lives with her husband, having three children: Azeb, Enza and Luca in Riverside, CA.  She taught ASL at three different community colleges before she decided to become a homemaker.

Her hobbies is running, cooking, eating healthy food, traveling, gardening, creating scrapbooks, making beads jewelry, creating cards, home decorations, and many more.  She focuses on encouragement,
socialization, and spending a quality time with her family.

 

Irina Normatov

Project Manager

Irina Miriam Normatov, she feels like she is a native New Yorker living here for 21 years, as she migrated to NYC when she was 9 years old from Samarkand, Uzbekistan with 3 older sisters and parents. Irina graduated from Gallaudet University in Bachelors Art Degree of Communication Art at summer 2007 and participated/experienced numerous of endless lists of personal/professional & leadership activities/jobs such as Homecoming Public Relations Chairperson, President/Parliamentarian/Director of Public Relations of Alpha Sigma Theta Sorority & Staff Residential Assistant at Gallaudet University and former Sales District Manager for Purple Communications, Inc, and many more that made who she is. Irina loves gatherings with families/friends, adventures, cultures, cooking, travelling, funny stories, action, drama, comedy and romance movies, and enjoy doing the creative/marketing projects.

 

Her favorite quote is The Only Joy in the World Is To Begin!

 

Women Retreats

GDW is proud to host four Women Retreats in Austin, Miami, Washington DC and Riverside, CA.

GDW believes that your personal life shall be precious by each day ... 

Please take a moment and sit down to review your life, ask yourself this... 

Have you ever had a chance to stop and see what you are doing?

Are you on the right track to pursue your goals and dream to meet your lifestyle you always wanted?  

Have you ever feeling stuck or hitting the wall but not sure where to detour?  

Women Retreats is right place for you to connect your inner-self to stretch your mind, body and soul.  It is sometime necessary to invest yourself to renew energy, get fresh ideas, review your wheel of life to see how balanced you are.  Crawl out from your busy life for just a weekend that will bring you clarity and focus to reach your goals with next level with other women's support and tools. 

First smashing retreat held in Hasbrouchk Heights, NJ was very successful. Check the slides above and you will feel that you want to be part of next retreat.  Click here: website for retreat updates.

Amazing Women

With this program, Global Deaf Women shines the spotlight on different "amazing" women.

The women selected are either deaf or have contributed to the deaf community, who have accomplished great things and overcame the odds.

In a partnership with iDeaf News, women are selected as an amazing woman, interviewed on iDeaf News, and awarded with a badge that they may place on their website or blog.

Know an amazing woman you think belong on this list? Contact us and let us know!

The Amazing Women

• Vicki Hurwitz, Washington , DC
• Patricia Ordonez, aka PattyO, New York City, NY
• Jackie Roth, New York City, NY
• Hilari Scarl, Los Angeles, CA

Vicki Hurwitz

First Lady of Gallaudet University

INTERVIEW WITH VICKI HURWITZ AND HOUSE ONE TOUR WITH CAPTIONS from i DEAF NEWS on Vimeo.

 

Patricia Ordonez, aka PattyO

Fashion Designer

PattyO

 

Jackie Roth

GDW Advisor

Real Estate Broker

 

President’s Circle Award 2008
Voted Most Valuable Broker for the Month of August 2007

Buying and selling a home is both a very personal experience and a major business endeavor. While the process can seem difficult and frustrating at times, having the right real estate specialist at your side can make it just as fun and rewarding. Jackie Roth brings personal as well as professional expertise to the table to help buyers find the right home for their budget, needs and lifestyle, and to feature sellers’ properties in the best light to attain the highest price deserved. 

“I can appreciate the various emotional aspects associated with buying and selling property having been through it many times myself,” notes Jackie, who strives to ensure confidence in those she represents by educating them clearly each step of the way. “Using my innate sense for what people want and like, my goals are quite simple: to see that clients’ needs are met, to communicate openly so they know where they stand, to assure an experience that’s satisfactory and rewarding, and to make my clientele happy.” 

A devout New Yorker, Jackie has lived in, worked in, played in and explored all neighborhoods of the city. As such, she has a good sense of the pulse of each area, and is considered a great matchmaker of people with property. Her well-rounded background fuels her interpersonal and creative flair, and includes many wonderful and exciting experiences from teaching theater in Nigeria to being a professional actor, touring with Broadway companies and working in TV/film to producing an Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Sound and Fury” in 2000. Jackie also worked as a consultant to businesses and non-profits in event planning and fundraising, developing strategic marketing plans, and conducting cross-cultural training for professionals. 

Traveling and discovering every little thing about a place and about people are Jackie’s true passions. She also is an avid enthusiast for the visual and performing arts as well as fashion. Jackie further enjoys the outdoors, loves the water, and has an overall zest for life and its wealth of offerings. Favorite hobbies include horseback riding, skiing, dancing, reading and watching good movies. 

 

Hilari Scarl

GDW Advisor

Hilari is an award-winning director who was selected out of 12,000 filmmakers to appear on the Steven Spielberg television series ON THE LOT. She received outstanding reviews from judges Garry Marshall, Carrie Fisher, Jon Avnet and Brett Ratner on her short comedy DITTO and for her cinematic vision and overall strength in working with actors.

Hilari has produced TV shows for CBS, The History Channel, TLC and Court TV. She directed/produced over 12 short films in two years, including the short documentary PAVING THE WAY which was a finalist for International Documentary Challenge, played the film festival circuit and was acquired by Current TV. Her narrative short SNIPS & SNAILS is a horror spoof that she directed, co-wrote and co-produced with Gary Anthony Williams. The film won the Audience Award at the Dances With Films festival and became a cult classic at film festivals around the world.

Hilari’s interest in the deaf community began in 1992 when she started working in deaf theatre. She has spent the past 18 years working with the deaf community as a director, performer and educator with the Tony Award winning National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD), the Deaf Arts Council, New York Deaf Theatre and Deaf West. She brings her intimate knowledge of deaf culture, personal friendships within the deaf community and signing skills to this documentary.

 

 

Life Coaching

Select members of Global Deaf Women are available to provide personal life and business coaching or consulting to deaf women at special rates.

New members get a free consult, depending on their level of membership.

Our Coaches & Consultants

Sofia Seitchik is Certified Life Coach and offers a life coaching for clients. What is Life Coaching? Have you ever felt “stuck” or that you have “hit a wall”? Have you ever felt that you wanted to take things to a new level?

Things may even be working well but you know that is not all you are capable of. You know that your best is still hidden inside of you. Life Coaching is the process that will help you find that.

Life coaching is about closing the gap between where you ARE and where you WANT to be. A life coach will ask questions, listen, and challenge your thinking in a way to create the transformation that you want to achieve. Gain greater levels of confidence, self-esteem, a passion for life, enhanced relationships and a far more focused approach to you life and business.

Just like a personal trainer motivates and walks you through the exercises you need to become more physically fit; a life coach brings a new focus to your life so you can become stronger and more focused you.

We are seeking for qualified coaching in different niches. Interested? Apply and get qualified!

Are you qualified to provide coaching? Join our program! Contact us for more information.

Coming Soon

• What do Deaf Women Want?
  

  A survey will be distributed finding out what women want and need. GDW share the results with members. Most importantly, the information will tell GDW what goals are most important and focus on those first.

• Interest Groups

  As membership grows, interest groups will be formed where women who share similar interests can connect. Web and graphic designers, for example. Or parents sharing child-raising tips.

• Resource Directory

  A ton of resources are available out there- self help classes, leadership training, business management, financial tools, and more. The majority of them are not accessible to the deaf. This directory will list deaf owned and deaf friendly businesses, services, and organizations.

• Tell Us your Suggestions

  Do you think there is another important program we should be adding up here? Tell us about it!