Meet Dr. Luanne Sailors | Sign Tribe Academy Founder & Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Luanne Sailors and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Luanne, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I began signing at the age of 6 months old because it was a necessity for me as both of my parents are Deaf; I’m a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). Growing up, it was a way of life for me to help my parents as well as others, and it led to a smooth transition as I became an American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreter. Throughout my college years at The University of Memphis, I majored in Special Education, graduated with my Doctoral degree in 2015, and I continued my career as a special eduction teacher and professional learning specialist. This field has really been an important part of my life, and it is something that I’m very passionate about.

Within my leadership and teaching career, I have led teachers and taught students with various disabilities in the elementary, middle, and high school settings. Having the experience of working with students and teachers across different grade levels has allowed me to visualize the bigger picture of how communication plays an important role throughout a student’s life and educational experience.

Some of the major challenges that I face within the field of special education is being able to communicate with students who are non-verbal or have limited communication skills. Given this obstacle and my experience with Sign Language, I wanted to teach parents how to communicate with their children who have disabilities. I built Sign Tribe Academy around the idea of supporting the communication needs of children, to help them have less frustration, to become more independent, and to have the ability to communicate with the caregivers in their lives.

Identifying communication strategies can be challenging, particularly when working with individuals who lack foundational communication skills. A lack of communication skills can lead to frustration and disruptive behaviors, so I worked toward developing communication solutions for individuals with disabilities. Helping individuals with disabilities to improve communication often leads to increased independence and an overall sense of happiness. Starting Sign Tribe and helping families overcome communication barriers has been, and continues to be the focus of our business!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Sign Tribe was founded in January of 2020, and we are growing each month while helping thousands of people to improve their communication skills through the use of ASL. We are grateful for the opportunity to help countless families across North America and other parts of the world, and we offer several self-paced, online courses to teach you ASL. As of January 2024, we have over 1,000 videos across Sign Tribe Academy, and new videos are added each month. There’s always something new to learn, and we offer monthly, annual, and lifetime purchase options!

What makes Sign Tribe Academy unique from other Sign Language courses is that we offer live ASL workshops throughout the year so that you can interact with me and other community members. We also offer Disability Support courses to help families with strategies on teaching Sign Language to their children with communication challenges. This course provides helpful tips and strategies so that your child can be successful. I developed each video on Sign Tribe, providing tips so that concepts are easy to understand.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As a native Memphian, some of my favorite BBQ spots are Corky’s on Poplar Ave. in East Memphis and Rendevous in Downtown Memphis.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Seeing the smiling faces, tagged posts, and positive feedback on how Sign Tribe Academy has helped so many people is very rewarding to me! I am humbled by the positivity and community that we have developed with so many people who need our help.

Website: https://sign-tribe.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/signtribe/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luanne-sailors-ed-d-45b4ba67/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/signtribes

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCIcMrEv6fHWirpsEhs_R1g

Other: Sign Tribe Merch: https://sign-tribe.creator-spring.com