Patricia Scherer, PhD

When the Center on Deafness was founded in 1973, it wasn't much more than a dream, a four-room storefront site with four main activities: theatre, creative arts, sign language instruction and a day program for only six students. Patricia Scherer, Ph.D., founded the Center on Deafness in Chicago's North suburbs to address the need for effective education for children who were deaf or hard of hearing.

A variety of training and outreach programs were established and nurtured with arts programs developed as complementary components of the Center's educational and vocational programs. The Center's mission was to provide the deaf and hard of hearing community with access to services and resources which would assist in the development of their individual potential.

Over the next two decades, this dream continued to expand as arts programs such as CenterLight Theatre and the International Creative Arts Festival reached new heights in professionalism and developed a radically different mission from that of the Center on Deafness. As a result of this diversification, a separate corporation focused solely on the arts was formed. On July 1, 1997 the arts programs began operating under a new charter and a new board of directors as the International Center on Deafness and the Arts (ICODA).

Since inception, our arts programs have touched hundreds who are deaf and hard of hearing children, including distinguished individuals such as Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin, Emmy Award winners Liz Tannebaum and Jonalee Folerzynski, and many other gifted individuals who otherwise may not have had an outlet through which to express their talents.

International Center on Deafness and the Arts