Meet the Instructor – Kellie

Kellie Gillespie was born Deaf from an unknown cause. With the encouragement of professionals, Kellie’s parents decided to raise her in the hearing world. She was fitted with hearing aids at 18 months. It took a lot of work and patience to mold her life as a normal hearing person; she acquired an incredible skill of lip reading. Kellie lip read her way through her childhood, high school and college years. She attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and it was there that she realized that she was not a normal hearing person.

Growing up Kellie met a few Deaf individuals but never really got to know them. She didn’t know sign language and not being able to communicate with them was intimidating. Denial of her deafness got in the way of many potential good friendships. At the age of 23, Kellie realized that she needed to learn sign language to be a part of this community; like a foreigner going back to their own country. All the years of lip reading and body language deciphering was just practice for the actual language. Being in an environment with ASL was liberating, it felt natural, and it was a relief. It was a world opening up and Kellie wanted to take more classes. She had so much fun! After two semesters at San Francisco City College she started taking classes at Vista Community College in Berkeley, California. Learning ASL was an amazing, positive, life-changing experience for Kellie. ASL is the language of the culture that makes up who Kellie is, an integral part of her that was denied growing up. It allowed Kellie to acknowledge her true self. ASL opened yet another door. Kellie continues to find a balance with her hearing aid world and her Deaf world, she calls it selective hearing.

In the last 5 years Kellie has lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Williamsburg, Virginia and she enjoys exploring new neighborhoods and creating friendships all over the place. Kellie relocated to Seattle in October 2010 and she likes it here, she’ll be staying a while. She enjoys teaching sign language to her friends and social circles; it’s amazing how many people actually know some ASL. When communicating gets tough, she is patient and visually expressive. Learning ASL is not as difficult as it seems, it’s fun!
Kellie enjoys long walks with her dog, exploring different yoga classes, hula hooping in the sunshine, traveling with a GPS, good food and wine, gardening and of course getting to know Seattle and its wonderful offerings!