Jane Fernandes (born Jane Frances Kelleher; August 21, 1956, in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a Deaf American educator and social justice advocate. As of August 2021, Fernandes is the President of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 2014, Fernandes became the first Deaf woman to lead an American college or university, serving at Guilford College through July 2021. She succeeded Kent Chabotar becoming the first woman to hold this position. Fernandes was formally inaugurated as the first female and the ninth president of Guilford College. In 1990, Jane Fernandes became the first Deaf woman to lead an American school designed for deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and deaf-blind students, serving at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind in Honolulu until August 1995. Early life and education Fernandes was raised in Worcester and is the oldest child of Richard Paul and Mary Kathleen (née Cosgrove) Kelleher. Her father was a lawyer and judge serving in Worcester, Barnstable, and Falmouth. Her mother was deaf and raised to speak, read, and write English, and was a trained golfer, following in her parents' footsteps. Fernandes, who was born deaf, was raised in the same way. She attended Worcester public schools before any state or federal laws required accommodations for deafness. She received intensive hearing and speech instruction through a partnership between home and school. While attending graduate school, Fernandes learned American Sign Language (ASL) and become involved with the Deaf community. As Jane Kelleher, she attended Trinity College, earning a B.A. degree in French and comparative literature. Kelleher attended the Middlebury College language school in French over two summers and studied in Cassis, France. At Trinity, in 1977 and 1978, Kelleher received the John Curtis Underwood Memorial Poetry Prize and the comparative literature book prize for her senior thesis. At The University of Iowa, Kelleher earned her M.A. and Ph.D., in comparative literature with emphasis on French poetry in historical depth, Renaissance and Baroque drama and American Sign Language literature. At Iowa, Kelleher received the Phillip G. Hubbard Human Rights Award. Career After graduating from Iowa, Fernandes did academic work centered in Deaf Language and Culture. Fernandes coordinated the American Sign Language and Interpreting Programs at Northeastern University before going to Gallaudet University as chair of Sign Communication. The next move was to Honolulu, Hawaii where Fernandes established an Interpreter Education Program at Kapiolani Community College, taught Deaf Education at the University