September 30, 2021 - Daniel Lundberg was born in Minneapolis and raised in Lakeville, a southern suburb of the Twin Cities. He started his education by mainstreaming at Cedar Preschool in Eagan, and Gideon Pond Elementary in Burnsville, using Signed Exact English (SEE) interpreters. He then used interpreters using Pidgin Signed English (PSE) during his junior high and high school years in Lakeville.
During Daniel's junior and senior high school years, he primarily used ASL to communicate with friends. He was involved in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community by attending Jr. NAD and Camp Courage North.
He accepted an Honors scholarship from Gallaudet University. He graduated in 2002 with summer internship experiences at the National Forest Service (northern Idaho), Biochemistry at James Madison University (Virginia), and Biomedical Engineering at Duke University (North Carolina).
During this time, Daniel met “the love of my life, Emily Smith-Lundberg.” They have been married for 16 years and have two children (Stella and Boden).
After graduating from college, Daniel did a 1-year post-baccalaureate fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Maryland, researching cancer pharmacology to identify promising therapeutics for cancer and pain treatment.
After the NCI post-bac, he moved back to his home state of Minnesota. He settled in St. Paul to pursue a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities’ medical school. He also installed Sorenson videophones part-time to support his young family and to get his "Deaf fix."
Realizing that both research 100% of the time or teaching full time wasn't for him, Daniel’s “dream job was now to be a college professor - with work responsibilities in research, teaching, and service.”
Two weeks after completing his Ph.D. dissertation defense (on cannabinoid modulation of synaptic transmission), Daniel was accepted as a Gallaudet chemistry tenure-track faculty member.
Daniel has been at Gallaudet for over 13 years. He is now the program director for both the Biology Program and Chemistry & Physics Program. He teaches classes at Gallaudet during the academic year, with some online summer courses “such as the science and history of beer brewing.” He also does a lot of service work for both the Gallaudet and Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities in both MN and the USA in general and has led limnology (study of lakes) research at the Brainerd Lakes Water Resources Laboratory in north-central MN during the summers with undergraduate student interns.
“I get bored so easy – so I love my job as there are so many diverse responsibilities!” Daniel especially enjoys teaching his students and learning from them, their different perspectives and experiences in life. “Inspiring our future scientists to be good citizens of the world.” The low student: faculty ratio at Gallaudet allows him to work closely with each student,” knowing them as human beings, which also leads to research mentoring opportunities.”
Daniel especially loves the signing environment at Gallaudet; the direct communication he has with the faculty, staff, administrators, and students.
The biggest challenge Daniel faces is “to challenge the strong student and not to leave the student that needs more time to learn material behind in the same classroom. Push and pull. This is what keeps my mind young, thinking of different ways to teach material that will connect with the student.”
Time management is also a big challenge, “juggling all the job responsibilities I have with a finite amount of time.” Every evening, to ensure he can sleep that night, “I write down a list of things to do the next day – prioritizing what needs to be done. The goal is to keep the list the same length – crossing off the “to-do” items while new “to-do” items are being added! And if there are conflicts at work, I make sure to take some time to think through the situation before responding to resolve the conflicts. Respond – not react.”
Daniel shares the following advice for working: “ do your very best. Do not settle for the minimal requirements of the job. No job will be 100% pleasant. It is important to look at the glass as half full, not empty – recognize the joys of the job. You may work with people that click with you well. You may work with people who are the polar opposites of you – the soft skills, people skills are key. Be patient when it comes to communication access, but at the same time ensure you have it.”
In his spare time, Daniel enjoys spending time outdoors - camping, fishing, hiking, cross-country skiing, biking, jogging, kayaking, canoeing, water skiing, downhill skiing, a little hockey on the skating pond, and spending time with family and pets. “I tried snowboarding, wakeboarding, and skateboarding - a complete failure, so I’m sticking to skis!”
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!
