October 3, 2019 - Cookie J. Brand was born and raised in Aurora, Illinois. She attended and graduated from Illinois School for the Deaf. Then she went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Then Cookie joined the Peace Corps and taught English and Science to Deaf children at the Kerugoya School for the Deaf in central Kenya for two years. During this time, she set up a group for girls to teach them leadership and advocacy skills. After the Peace Corps, she went to graduate school at Gallaudet University to get a Masters degree in School Counseling. After she graduated with her Masters degree, she moved to Wisconsin, where she lived for ten years. In Wisconsin, Cookie had four jobs. She first worked at the Center for Communication, Hearing and Deafness, now HEAR WI, as a program specialist. She provided ASL and language support to Deaf/HOH/CODA toddlers. Cookie also taught community classes at the Center for six years.
As a Deaf Mentor for 11 years, Cookie provided families with Deaf and Hard of Hearing children with ASL. For two years, Cookie taught beginning ASL classes at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM). She also worked at Deaf Unity to provide support to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. In her free time, Cookie was also involved with the Wisconsin Association for the Deaf, sat on the State Superintendent’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advisory Council as well as being involved with the Wisconsin Sign Language Licensure Task Force.
Cookie has two daughters, one is Deaf and the other is hard-of-hearing. Minnesota offered a job opportunity as well as a better school placement for her Deaf daughter, so the family moved to St. Paul almost two years ago. She enjoys going to Deaf conferences to learn more and polish her leadership skills, so that she can give back to the community one day. On the side, she is a macrophotography, still-life, and landscape photographer. Cookie currently has photos on display at the Dyer Arts Center at the Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf (RIT/NTID) for a second time as part of Color to the Cube, which features the art of Deaf people of color.
Cookie works as a School Counselor at Metro Deaf School in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a part of the Mental Health Team with three other fantastic and experienced people that include a psychologist and two social workers. Together, the four of them provide support to students, parents, teachers, and staff. The Mental Health Team also meets with students individually and in social skills groups, address behavior issues, resolve conflict or tension, and support students with executive functioning skills needed to become successful persons. Though the Mental Health Team works with the whole school, Cookie primarily works with middle and high school students.
Cookie really enjoys working with the Mental Health Team at the Metro Deaf School. The relationships she has with her students and their parents is something she values deeply, because she says, it “helps me understand the students better.” She appreciates the diverse student body and credits her Peace Corps experience in helping her better understand students who have moved to Minnesota from other countries. Cookie also values the opportunity to continuously learn new things and connect with the students daily.
Cookie is no stranger to barriers. As a pageant contestant, she was the only Deaf contestant. The Pageant directors would not provide an ASL interpreter even though she requested one many times. Her interpreting friends volunteered their time to interpret her pageant meetings and rehearsals. Unfortunately, Cookie was not given equal access in her participation in the Pageant, which led to her not getting a fair chance of competing in the Pageant, including the instruction she received to stand in the far back for each of the dance numbers.
Her advice is, “Don’t give up,” adding, “Opportunities might not come up right away, but it will eventually come up in the future. Life is full of different options and opportunities!” Another bit of advice she shared was to network and meet people with various skills because it will always “be useful and beneficial.” Cookie also suggested to “Get experience! Make sure you get out of your comfort zone and experience life!” For example, move out of state for a year, if it doesn’t work out, you can move back home. Furthermore, she added, “Try something new and you will grow from the experience.”
The #CanDoAnything campaign showcases people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing at work, giving them an opportunity to share what they do at their jobs and explain how communication access works for them. This campaign shows what our community can do, which is anything!
