Dennis Cokely, PhD
Center Associate Director

Dennis Cokely is a Professor of American Sign Language at Northeastern University. He is currently the Director of the ASL Program and the Chair of the Department of Languages, Literature and Cultures. He also serves as Director of the World Languages Center. Dr. Cokely is internationally known as a consultant and lecturer. For 15 years he worked in various positions at Gallaudet University (as a teacher of elementary and high school students, an administrator, an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School, and as a Research Associate in the Linguistics Research Lab where he worked with William Stokoe). From 1983 through 1987 he served as the president of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) and was instrumental in revising the RID's certification and testing program and overseeing the organization’s by-Laws reform.

Before coming to Northeastern in 1996, he was the President of Sign Media, Inc., a leading producer of print and video materials While at Sign Media, he produced, directed or translated over 400 video titles on Deaf culture and history, American Sign Language, and ASL/English interpretation.

Dr. Cokely received his doctorate in Sociolinguistics from Georgetown University and also has a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics. His publications include numerous articles, a classic series of five textbooks on American Sign Language (generally known as "The Green Books") which he co-authored with Charlotte Baker-Shenk, Sign Language Interpreters and Interpreting and Interpretation which he edited and Interpretation: A Sociolinguistic Model which has been translated into Italian, German and excerpted into Swedish and Japanese.

As the Center Associate Director, Dr. Cokely works closely with Dr. Winston to lead and evaluate all projects.

She currently leads the Web/IT and PR/Marketing workteams, and coordinates all of the technical activities of the National Consortium.