Dr. Carrie Lou Bloom (formerly Garberoglio) is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin and Director of the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC). She leads national initiatives focused on strengthening the systems, policies, and practices that support deaf people in pursuing education, training, meaningful careers, and long-term advancement.
As Director and Principal Investigator of NDC, Dr. Bloom oversees a national technical assistance and capacity-building center supported by a five-year, $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. In 2026, she also received two additional federal awards as principal investigator: a five-year, $2.25 million award from the Rehabilitation Services Administration for *Beyond Access: Strengthening Interpreter Capacity for Deaf Youth in Transition*, and a three-year, $2.1 million award from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research for *Deafverse Career Connections*. Together, these three awards represent more than $24 million in federal funding to advance postsecondary opportunities, strengthen interpreter capacity, and develop innovative, accessible career-development tools for deaf youth.
Dr. Bloom's work is grounded in a commitment to centering deaf people in decisions that shape their lives and challenging deficit-based narratives about deaf people. Rather than locating barriers within individuals, she focuses on identifying and changing the systems, structures, and practices that constrain opportunities. Her work bridges research, policy, and practice, with particular attention to educational and employment outcomes, the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and the ways systemic barriers and psychosocial factors shape deaf people's experiences.
Her scholarship draws on large-scale federal datasets to examine educational attainment, postsecondary experiences, and employment outcomes among deaf people. Across her research and applied work, she emphasizes culturally responsive approaches, meaningful community engagement, and making data and evidence accessible and actionable for deaf communities, educators, policymakers, and practitioners.
Dr. Bloom holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and a master's degree in Program Evaluation from The University of Texas at Austin, as well as a master's degree in Deaf Education and Deaf Studies from Lamar University.
Deafverse Career Connections: Strengthening Employment Outcomes for Deaf People
National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) | $2.1 million | 20262029
As Principal Investigator, Dr. Bloom leads Deafverse Career Connections, a three-year intervention-development research project focused on designing, implementing, and evaluating an accessible career-readiness intervention for deaf youth. Using a participatory co-design approach, the project engages deaf youth in developing an integrated intervention that combines career discovery and individualized assessment, structured career guidance, and opportunities for career exploration and networking. Through iterative development, pilot implementation, and multisite field testing, the study will examine feasibility, accessibility, acceptability, implementation fidelity, and preliminary outcomes related to career readiness and informed decision-making. Findings will contribute to the evidence base for culturally and linguistically responsive career-development interventions and inform future research, practice, and implementation across education and workforce systems.
Beyond Access: Strengthening Interpreter Capacity for Deaf Youth in Transition
Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) | $2.25 million | 20262031
Dr. Bloom serves as Principal Investigator of Beyond Access, a five-year initiative designed to strengthen the professional capacity of interpreters working with deaf youth across secondary-to-postsecondary transition, vocational rehabilitation, and workforce settings. The project employs a multi-component professional development model integrating asynchronous learning, intensive training, coaching, mentoring, and applied practice, with deaf interpreters playing a central role in curriculum development and instruction. The initiative emphasizes interpreting practices that facilitate deaf individuals' autonomy, informed choice, self-advocacy, and meaningful participation in education and employment systems, while expanding the availability of interpreters prepared to work effectively in these specialized contexts.
National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) | $20 million | 20262031
As Principal Investigator and Director, Dr. Bloom leads the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC), a federally funded national technical assistance and dissemination center dedicated to improving postsecondary education, training, and employment outcomes for deaf people. Through a coordinated framework of universal, targeted, and intensive technical assistance, NDC supports the identification, adoption, implementation, and sustained use of evidence-based practices across educational institutions, vocational rehabilitation agencies, workforce systems, and state-level partnerships. The center integrates data analysis, accessible professional development, implementation support, and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen institutional capacity, address systemic barriers, and advance equitable postsecondary opportunities for deaf people.
