Bernadette Mulcahy-Bouwman is Principal of van Asch Deaf Education Centre in Christchurch. For the past 15 years Bernie has had close involvement in strategic development of Deaf Education Services in New Zealand. She has been a member of Ministry of Education Working Parties, Steering Groups and National Coordination meetings over this time.
Her Professional experience in the field of Deaf Education has spanned 27 years. Bernie qualified initially as a Speech Language Therapist and then soon after qualified as a Teacher of the Deaf. In the mid 1980s she taught deaf students in base school and unit settings. She then worked for ten years as a Specialist Resource Teacher specialising in Language Development. In this role she supported deaf educators, mainstream schools and families of deaf children throughout the van Asch Region. Bernie went on to lecture Teachers of the Deaf and Advisors of the Deaf in the area of Language Development. Bernie’s particular area of interest in Deaf Education is Early Intervention. She has nine years of teaching experience in this field. Communication and Parent-Child interaction skills are areas she has placed emphasis on throughout her teaching experience.