| Mary Dignan was born with
moderate to severe hearing loss, but her deafness was not diagnosed
until she was almost 5 years old, after she had been diagnosed as
mentally retarded. A routine eye test for reading glasses during her
college years revealed the onset of retinitis pigmentosa (RP)
symptoms. Eventually she would learn
that she had Usher syndrome, Type 2, which is characterized by
moderate to severe deafness at birth, and blindness from RP later in
life.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Santa
Clara University in 1976, and embarked upon a career that included
newspaper reporting, legislative work for the U.S. House of
Representatives and the California State Assembly Committee on
Agriculture, public relations and governmental liaison work with one
of California's largest and most complex water agencies, and her own
consulting business in the field of water and natural resources
management policy. In 1990, a year after she was certified legally
blind with a restricted visual field of 8 degrees (a normal visual
field is 180-150 degrees), she started law school. In 1994, she
earned her juris doctorate with honors from University of the
Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, was admitted to the
California State Bar, and began practicing water and natural
resources law with the Sacramento firm of Kronick, Moskovitz,
Tiedemann & Girard. In 1997, she discovered she had a brain tumor
and underwent surgery to remove it. The tumor and the surgery
exacerbated and complicated her vision and hearing losses, and she
has not practiced law since.
Instead, she practices healing and art and has
a lot more fun. After ten years of increasing deafness, she received
a cochlear implant in 2008 and is delighted to be back in the
hearing world again. In addition to her art, she
focuses her energy on writing, public speaking, enjoying her dream
kitchen, and community volunteer work. Her community service record
includes six years (including terms as chair and vice-chair) on the
Disability Advisory Committee to the Sacramento County Board of
Supervisors; nine years with Spirit in the Arts, a joint community
outreach project of Bread of Life (including two years as a member
of the board of directors) and is presently serving on the board of
the local Sacramento chapter of Foundation Fighting Blindness.
Mary welcomes opportunities to speak about her
life and her work, and especially enjoys speaking to young children
and teenagers in classroom and meeting settings. Send inquiries to
her at
dignan101@sbcglobal.net. |
