Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind

Deaf-Blind Program - Staff Bios

ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

Mark Landreneau
Government Affairs Specialist

Born in Louisiana, home to the largest number of Ushers people in America, Mark has three people with Ushers in his family - his brother, his cousin and himself.  His native language is American Sign Language, commonly known as ASL.  He attended the state school for the Deaf in both Louisiana and Florida and graduated from Gallaudet University in Washington DC.

Mark currently works as a Government Affairs Specialist for the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind. In this role he has had the opportunity to orchestrate Deaf-Blind community efforts to lobby the United States Congress and the Washington State Legislature resulting in the allocation of 2.3 million dollars for services for Deaf-Blind people. He has headed up the National Deaf-Blind Leadership Training Program, coordinated the annual Deaf-Blind Retreat and given numerous presentations including the convention of the American Association of Deaf-Blind, Deaf-Blind International conference in Portugal and the Deaf-Blind conference in Australia.

Previously Mark worked at the Deaf-Blind Service Center.  For ten years he worked as an Advocate and was successful in collaborating with city engineers to install Australian-made pedestrian street crossing vibrating signalers at intersections in Seattle.

Mark has also worked with training interpreters and is showcased in videotapes produced by the National Deaf-Blind Interpreter Training Curriculum, the National Interpreter Training Curriculum on Diversity in the Deaf Community and the National Video Relay Service. He is featured in two documentaries: Oliver Sacks' Chronicle of people of Cajun desent with Ushers on the BBC and a PBS "Luncheonette" series.

Mark has been recognized with the Peter J. Salmon National Award given by the American Association of Deaf-Blind and the Golden Cane Award given by the Deaf-Blind citizens of Washington State.

In his free time Mark enjoys traveling, studying other cultures, bicycling, jogging and trying new things.

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