Samantha “Sammie” Porter was born and raised in Wisconsin. She attended mainstream with deaf/hard of hearing program whole life until last two years of high school, entered Wisconsin School for the Deaf, graduated in 2008. She also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2008 to 2012, left and moved to Washington State. Sammie worked at Lighthouse for the Blind, inc as production lead from 2013 until 2020, Sammie was heavily involved in DeafBlind community as board member, organization positions and advocacy. She decided to leave her longtime employment and her second home due to wanting to be near her family during pandemic and want to expand her life experiences.
Sammie moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in early 2021 and worked in the mental health field for a year and half then she committed to work as DeafBlind Community Specialist under DeafBlind Service of Minnesota from 2022 and continue to be working there. She currently returns to school to complete her BSW (bachelor’s in social work) at Metro State University this year. She’s also have involved in providing DeafBlind Consultant to work with few organizations with their projects. Sammie recently got a position under Commissions as board at large and her goals is to expand awareness, developing advocacy system, and interacting with DeafBlind folks with range of ages to provide full access and support system to enhance their quality of life and community wise.
In her free time, she loves to travel, it’s releasing as part of her mental health and self-care to explore the hidden gems, meet people, reconnect with people she knows. One day, Sammie is hoping to travel out of country other than Canada and Mexico to experience the rich moments.
"Serving on the board is the key of display the journey for me to provide knowledge, experiences, team work and improving the road conditions to full accessible and expand the breakdown barriers to better light at the end of the day." - Sammie Porter
