Shirley Applebee

Shirley Applebee has taught American Sign Language classes at University of Minnesota since the ASL Program’s inception in 1990.  In addition to teaching, Shirley has served the Twin Cities Deaf Community for many years through her work as a nationally certified sign language interpreter and as the former coordinator of the Interpreter/Captioning Unit within the U of M’s Disability Resource Center. Prior to teaching at the collegiate level, Shirley attended the National Consortium of Programs for the Training of Sign Language Instructors, at the University of Knoxville, where she studied under renowned Deaf teacher, author, poet and advocate, Ella Mae Lentz. Shirley’s passion for ASL and love of teaching is as strong today as it was 30+ years ago and she has been very blessed in her career.

Professional memberships/associations:

• American Sign Language Teachers Association
• MinnLoon American Sign Language Teachers Association