Staff - Retired

Maurice Belote served as Project Coordinator of California Deafblind Services (CDBS) from 1992 until his retirement in 2021. CDBS is the federally-funded statewide technical assistance and training project that serves children and youth who are deafblind, their educational teams, and families. Maurice successfully transferred CDBS from its previous fiscal agent to SF State in 1997 to align project activities with the SF State Department of Special Education and its commitment to research and the preparation of highly qualified teachers. Maurice provided deafblind-specific content to public and private university-based teacher training programs throughout California, including various credential programs at SF State. He served as adjunct faculty for two four-year personnel preparation grants at SFSU focused on training teachers of students who are deafblind. With his CDBS team, Maurice also developed an intervener certificate program through the SF State College of Extended Learning that prepares paraeducators to effectively support communication and curricular access for deafblind students in school and community settings. He is a graduate of what was then the SF State teacher training program in deafblindness and studied under Drs. Barbara Franklin and Deborah Chen. Maurice began his career as a home and hospital teacher and later served as a classroom teacher of transition-age students in the deafblind program at the California School for the Blind. In addition to his work on the state project, Maurice also serves as Co-Chair of the National Coalition on Deafblindness, which advocates for federal legislation and public policy that promotes equitable access for children and youth who are deafblind, and he is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. In 2021, Maurice was awarded the Anne Sullivan Macy Medal—the most distinguished award in the field of deafblindness—for his decades of work on behalf of deafblind students.