Rafe Martinez
Raphael “Rafe” Martinez is the cofounder and Executive Director of the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy, or ASLA. This groundbreaking charter school serves deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing children through a dual-language ASL-English curriculum. Rafe’s primary motivation for cofounding the school was his son, Ben, who was born with severe hearing loss, but whose options for high-quality learning within existing schools serving the deaf and hard of hearing did not meet his needs. Rafe has also been an English teacher, varsity basketball coach, and dean of students. Rafe bridged the public-charter gap by serving for two years as the director of student support at ACE Leadership High School. This experience opened his eyes to new possibilities in education, as he was exposed to an orientation within the national education reform movement that promoted positive youth development by emphasizing students’ need for social/emotional stability to achieve high academic standards.