Janine Cashman

Janine Cashman has had a variety of experiences in her 40 year career thus far.  What initially sparked her interest was ASL linguistics, which prompted her to become an ASL instructor at Indiana University.  During her time there, she worked closely with the well known author of the paper, “The Unlocking of the Curriculum” – 1989, Dr. Scott Lidell.  As a team, they developed 76 intermediate and advanced ASL videotapes that were distributed nationally.

After her time at Indiana University her family then moved to Minnesota where she taught ASL for Faribault Senior High School, community ed classes, and parents of MSAD students.  She was also an employee of MSAD for 16 years working as a Certified Deaf Interpreter, also known as a CDI.

The next stop in her journey took her to the east coast – BEACHES!!!!  During her time there she worked as a paraprofessional at two schools: Delaware School for the Deaf and Gallaudet University – Kendall School for the Deaf.  Janine was also very involved as a sign language rater for the NAD-IAP and SCPI.

Eventually, her path brought her back to Minnesota where she currently resides. She works as a Certified Deaf Interpreter specializing in education, medical, and DeafBlind.  Janine is a vowed supporter of this fast growing profession and loves taking up a variety of opportunities such as participating in the Deaf Interpreters Conference (DIC). In fact, Janine was a charter member of the very first conference in 2015! Another avenue she is proud to be a part of is mentoring for the E2E program.  Her primary focus as a mentor is to work with mentees to develop their English to ASL interpreting skills.  She will utilize her interpersonal skills to connect with each mentee to encourage and build confidence.

When Janine is not working she is busy being a proud grandma to 6 grandchildren, riding her elliptical, taking bike rides, and doing kettle bell and yoga training, aka her “torture chamber”.  Janine also enjoys a little down time by reading books.  A couple random facts about Janine: she despises winter and had a role in a well known movie, “In the Can,” directed by a prominent deaf director, Mark Wood.  One of her co-actors was the famous Deaf actor, Nyle DiMarco, from America’s Next Top Model and Dancing With the Stars.