Ellen L. Bowman
2008 AER BDS Scholarship Recipient
By Julia Brock, AER BDS Scholarship Chairperson
Ellen Bowman is achieving her educational goals with a bit of help along the way from the AER BDS Scholarship Fund. Ellen received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alabama in 2006 and decided to pursue a Master’s degree from the University of Alabama n Birmingham (UAB). She applied for and received the AER BDS Scholarship in 2008 and completed the Master of Arts in Special Education from UAB in August 2009. Ellen decided to pursue her doctorate and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she is concentrating her studies in sensory impairments in the School of Optometry Department of Vision Sciences. She has completed her doctoral coursework and is in the process of defending her doctoral dissertation.
Ellen’s interest in deaf blindness and visual impairments was sparked by her own children. Her oldest child, Simon, has Lever’s Congenital Amaurosis and her younger son, Andrew, has dual sensory impairments due to the progression of Mucopolysaccharidosis Disorder III-A.
During her educational career, Ellen has received many honors and awards including the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences External Degree Program Outstanding Senior Project Award in 2007; the UAB School of Education Outstanding Alumni Award in 2010; and the Minnie Flaura Turner Memorial Fund for Impaired Vision Research in 2011. She also achieved certification in low vision rehabilitation from the UAB School of Heath Professions Department of Occupational Therapy in 2012.
Ellen is an interpreter for the deaf, a cues speech transliterator, a teacher for students with visual impairments, and a certified orientation and mobility specialist. She has served as an intervener and a support service provider for those with deaf blindness.
Additionally, Ellen is a member of several national, state, and local professional organizations and a Fellow with the National Leadership Consortium for Sensory Disabilities as recipient of a scholar grant through Salus University. She has presented on the international, national, state and local level. But most importantly, she is an advocate for people with disabilities.
As you can see, Ellen has been a very busy mom and an achieving student. AER is proud to have played a small part in assisting Ellen in achieving her educational goals!