Mrs. Cheri Deardorff teaches American Sign Language and Visual Arts at New Way. She has had a passion for language from her earliest years. After taking the first sign language class offered at Phoenix College, she was hooked! She was in the first graduating class of the Interpreter Preparation Program and honed her interpreting skills as a member of a traveling Deaf performing troupe. That led to her love of the performing arts and she spent 25 years on the Board of Directors of Artes Bellas, a Phoenix non-profit flamenco dance company.
Before coming to New Way, Mrs. Deardorff taught Graphic Design and American Sign Language at Metro Tech High School. She has taught in the Interpreter Training Program at Phoenix College for 28 years.
Along with Spanish flamenco dancing, she enjoys calligraphy, watercolor painting and can often be seen on the New Way campus painting murals.
