BIO - Miako (Villanueva) Rankin
If you ask Miako (Villanueva) Rankin where she’s from, you’re likely to get a more complicated
explanation than you expected. Although she has now lived in the DC metro area longer than
anywhere else in her life, early years in Hawai’i, high school in small-town Arkansas, and young
adulthood in Colorado all played formative roles in shaping who she is today.
Miako was first introduced to the Deaf community and ASL in Colorado Springs. Always fascinated by questions about how people understand each other (as evidenced by her Psychology major and German minor at Colorado College), she was blessed with a CHAMP deaf teacher for her first ASL class (shout out to Jeannette Scheppach!). The desire to immerse herself in Deaf culture led to volunteer work and four years as a dorm supervisor at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (Go, Bulldogs!) as well as interpreter training at Pikes Peak Community College. Her insatiable curiosity and love of language and culture wouldn’t allow her to stop there, however. In 2002 she followed her quest for more and deeper
learning to Gallaudet University, where she pursued graduate studies in Linguistics, bleeding Buff and Blue as a proud Bison alum (MA 2004, PhD 2010).
Miako is honored to now continue her learning as a full-time faculty member in the Department
of Linguistics at Gallaudet. She specializes in Applied Linguistics and engaged research –
incorporating the knowledge, approaches, and understandings gleaned from linguistic research of ASL directly into language teaching and interpretation. Miako also maintains a thriving interpreting practice, working primarily as an independent contractor and specializing in advanced educational, performing arts, government, religious, and business settings. She particularly enjoys the overlap of linguistics and interpreting, and will take full advantage of any opportunity to discuss language and nerd out about the ever-changing dynamics that create the awesome challenge that is interpreting. Consider yourself warned - smile!
If you ask Miako (Villanueva) Rankin where she’s from, you’re likely to get a more complicated
explanation than you expected. Although she has now lived in the DC metro area longer than
anywhere else in her life, early years in Hawai’i, high school in small-town Arkansas, and young
adulthood in Colorado all played formative roles in shaping who she is today.
Miako was first introduced to the Deaf community and ASL in Colorado Springs. Always fascinated by questions about how people understand each other (as evidenced by her Psychology major and German minor at Colorado College), she was blessed with a CHAMP deaf teacher for her first ASL class (shout out to Jeannette Scheppach!). The desire to immerse herself in Deaf culture led to volunteer work and four years as a dorm supervisor at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (Go, Bulldogs!) as well as interpreter training at Pikes Peak Community College. Her insatiable curiosity and love of language and culture wouldn’t allow her to stop there, however. In 2002 she followed her quest for more and deeper
learning to Gallaudet University, where she pursued graduate studies in Linguistics, bleeding Buff and Blue as a proud Bison alum (MA 2004, PhD 2010).
Miako is honored to now continue her learning as a full-time faculty member in the Department
of Linguistics at Gallaudet. She specializes in Applied Linguistics and engaged research –
incorporating the knowledge, approaches, and understandings gleaned from linguistic research of ASL directly into language teaching and interpretation. Miako also maintains a thriving interpreting practice, working primarily as an independent contractor and specializing in advanced educational, performing arts, government, religious, and business settings. She particularly enjoys the overlap of linguistics and interpreting, and will take full advantage of any opportunity to discuss language and nerd out about the ever-changing dynamics that create the awesome challenge that is interpreting. Consider yourself warned - smile!