The Fight to be Heard
Cal State East Bay’s first Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program Ed.D. student champions access to Deaf education
When she speaks, Jamila Guerrero-Cantor can’t help but move her hands. As an advocate, activist and counselor in the Deaf community for two decades, using sign language comes naturally to Cal State East Bay’s first-ever Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) student within the university’s Doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice.
The CDIP is awarded annually to doctoral candidates who show promise in their proposed research and vested interest in competing for future tenure-track openings within the California State University system. CDIP participants can complete their degrees in any accredited doctoral program nationwide, and Guerrero-Cantor, who was also accepted at UCLA, chose Cal State East Bay.
As she explains why she left a coveted tenure-track position as a counselor for Deaf students to study at CSUEB, she places one hand perpendicular to her chest, palm down, facing the floor. Then she takes her other hand, balls it into a fist and punches up in into the flat hand several times.