Marshall Hurst

Marshall Hurst is the outreach and ASL communications specialist for the BU Deaf Center at Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. In this role, Mr. Hurst connects the Center’s research to a wider public through social media, web content, and events. He also contributes to research with Amy Lieberman and Naomi Caselli on language acquisition and language deprivation among Deaf children nationwide.

Mr. Hurst is a Deaf professional from Ontario, Canada, where he grew up in a Deaf family in the countryside near Niagara Falls. As the second-generation Deaf person in his family, he attended mainstream schools while remaining firmly rooted in Deaf culture and community. He studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor of science in business management and a master of business administration. That background gave him a foundation in business models, organizational strategy, and leadership.

His interest in bilingual education began at home. His mother taught Deaf students for more than 15 years, and her commitment to bilingualism shaped his belief that Deaf children deserve full access to language from the start. That conviction led him to change careers and enroll in Boston University’s EdM program in Deaf Education, where the bilingual philosophy aligned with his own. After finishing the program, Mr. Hurst taught world history and world geography in the high school department at the Texas School for the Deaf. Working directly with Deaf students sharpened his sense of what strong bilingual instruction looks like in practice.

Pronouns: he/him/his