James J. DeCaro, Director of PEN-International, was inducted into the first "class" of the Rochester Institute of Technology's Innovation Hall of Fame on Friday, April 30. He is one of 10 prominent men and women so honored.
DeCaro served as dean of NTID for 14 years prior to becoming director of the Postsecondary Education Network-International (PEN-International), a multinational collaborative network of colleges and universities serving deaf students around the world. PEN-International is funded by The Nippon Foundation of Japan. He is also director of the NTID Center on Access Technology, which focuses on the application of innovative technologies to facilitate access to educational settings for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. From December 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010, DeCaro is on leave from both positions while serving a one-year commitment as interim president of NTID.
In 2009, DeCaro was named Dean Emeritus of NTID by RIT President William Destler.
"From the first time I set foot on this campus as a new member of the faculty in 1971, it was clear to me that I was expected to take risks, and develop and implement new ways of teaching people who are deaf … but to do so in a calculated and systematic fashion," DeCaro says. "That is, develop new approaches to reaching out to people who are deaf … finding innovative ways to meet their educational needs. The educational history of people who are deaf was one of underachievement and low expectations. For almost 40 years now, I have been given the freedom to pursue these ends... and not only at the college of NTID but across the university. RIT is an institution that has thrived on innovation and change and has been nimble and flexible in providing its people with the opportunity to innovate. For this, I am most appreciative and thrilled."
RIT, which aspires to be known as "The Innovation University," is an institution long-affiliated with many of the world's leading innovators in the arts, sciences and industry. Other innovators honored by induction into the RIT Innovation Hall of Fame with DeCaro include: John Jacob Bausch and Henry C. Lomb, founders of Bausch & Lomb; xerography founder Chester F. Carlson; artist Wendell Castle; Kodak founder and philanthropist George Eastman; business leader and inventor Kate Gleason; former Kodak researcher John F. Hamilton, who created image processing algorithms for Kodak digital cameras; digital media expert N. Katherine Hayles; and John Resig, a 2005 RIT graduate who created jQuery javaScript library.
