PRIDE Program

Promoting Relationships Involving Deaf Employees—PRIDE is a supported-employment program for adults with hearing loss. PRIDE’s goal is to place deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals into competitive employment with job coaching to assist them in becoming a productive and self-supporting worker in the community. You may contact PRIDE at 585-336-5831 (voice or TTY) or via e-mail at PRIDE@rsdeaf.org

PRIDE staff

Raymond Clark, PRIDE Coordinator

Prior to joining the PRIDE program at RSD Raymond Clark was operations director in the St. Petersburg office of Deaf Service Bureau of West Central Florida, Inc. He also worked as a group advisor for the Residential Treatment Center at Tampa Bay Academy in Riverview, Florida.

Clark, a native of Fairfax, Virginia, earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies at Gallaudet University. While attending college Clark interned as a reports officer for the Office of Counter Narcotics Enforcement in the United States Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C.

In 2005 Clark was a member of the United States Deaf Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Team competing in the Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia.

At RSD Clark coordinates PRIDES’s job training, job placement, and supported employment services for deaf adults who have additional disabling conditions. Currently, PRIDE serves 40 clients. PRIDE’s goal is to place deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals into competitive employment with job coaching to assist them in becoming a productive and self-supporting worker in the community.

Mistie Munton-Smith
Mistie Munton-Smith, Case Manager at the PRIDE Program, earned her Bachelor’s in Social Work at Rochester Institute of Technology. After graduation, Mistie worked in the DePaul organization as a residential manager at Embury Group Home, serving deaf residents with mental illness and other conditions. From DePaul, Mistie accepted a position as a Deaf Companion with Center for Disability Rights (CDR). After two years working one-on-one with deaf consumers, Mistie was offered and accepted a position as a Medicaid Service Coordinator with CDR.

Gail Boorum
Gail Boorum, Job Coach for PRIDE, is a graduate of Rochester Business Institute and worked as administrative assistant at Rochester School for the Deaf for 34 years. In addition to that role, she coordinated special events for the school for 13 years. Several years ago she started a business as an Independent Mary Kay Beauty Consultant and is currently an Independent Mary Kay Sales Director.

Joe Hamilton
Scene Shop Foreman for Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf Cultural and Creative Studies/Performing Arts Department since 1995, Joe Hamilton has built more than 60 theatrical/stage sets since 1995. When he's not working as a job coach for PRIDE, Joe teaches or assigns students to build scenery for NTID Performing Arts plays and shows. Joe also trains students at RIT to operate lights, sound, and projection equipment and how to rig flats and curtains. At NTID Joe also works with students from Rochester School for the Deaf who are in RSD's Work Experience Program. Joe supervises RSD students, giving them a taste of how to be a good employee. In the same way as a job coach for PRIDE, Joe works with PRIDE clients at their job site, so they can be successful employees. When he's not working, you'll find Joe fishing, remodeling his home, or spending time with his family.

David Justice
David Justice, a native of Rochester, NY, is currently taking a break from PRIDE. With Christy Smith, David is Discovering Deaf Worlds, traveling around the world to meet with Deaf storytellers, community leaders, organizations, and youth from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, India, Nepal, Kenya and more. David has worked, as a Job Coach for the SW Washington Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; as a counselor for the Aspen Camp School for the Deaf; on language development research for early intervention programs; and, as a postsecondary ASL/English interpreter. David earned a B.A. in Sociology from Ithaca College in New York and an A.A.S. in Interpreter Preparation from Front Range Community College in Colorado, with concentrations in Counseling and Criminal Justice. David is passionate about improving communication accessibility to Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities.