Anita Small, M.Sc., Ed.D. is a sociolinguist, educator, arts programmer, cultural mediator and researcher. She is inspired to connect communities through communication and the arts.
Dr. Small, Founder/ Owner, small LANGUAGE CONNECTIONS, works with artists, museums, theatres, broadcast companies, educational and non-profit arts organizations and businesses to co-create empowering, award-winning productions, exhibits, resources, curricula, professional training and institutions engaging diverse communities.
In 2024, Dr. Small co-founded and is the Curriculum Developer for the Deaf Arts Academy under the auspices of the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf to expand Deaf arts excellence across Canada for future generations. She was Co-Founder (2006) and Co-Director of the DEAF CULTURE CENTRE in Toronto, responsible for programming, research and development and was Bilingual Coordinator of the first bilingual Deaf education program in the United States at the Learning Centre for Deaf Children.
With a passion in language, culture, education and research, she has her Doctorate of Education in Sociolinguistics, University of Cincinnati (1986), her Master of Science in Speech and Language Pathology, Dalhousie University (1981) and her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Toronto (1979). Dr. Small draws on her extensive knowledge of language development, literacy and bilingual pedagogy in tutoring and mentoring. She is a member of the College of Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO) and has her certification from Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC). Anita has researched, published and presented on parent-child early communication, language planning and bilingual pedagogy, sign language literacy, visual and performing arts, cultural identity, cross-cultural interaction and creating empowering educational environments in schools and the workplace.
Dr. Small brings to her writing consultation of professionals, great success as a grant writer and mentor, having raised over 20 million dollars in project grants.
Dr. Small is the initiator and co-creator of multiple award-winning educational productions, including the Deafplanet television series and website (United Nations World Summit Best of the Best UNESCO Award) and the first animated children’s sign language dictionary (International W3 Award). She has co-created sign language animation guidelines for Canadian broadcast television with the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf (CCSD), Sticky Brain Studios and Gallaudet University (2025).
She has had Cultural Mediation Training and Staff Dispute Resolution Training through the University Mediation Program of the University of Minnesota. She has subsequently provided cultural interaction training, consultation and mediation over the last 35 years in Canada, the U.S., Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and France.
Dr. Small taught bilingual bicultural Deaf education, Faculty of Education at York University (12 years), and comparative linguistics, Linguistics Department, U of T Scarborough Campus (9 years). She has served as a consultant on bilingual bicultural Deaf educational pedagogy in Canada, the United States and Japan. She was cross-appointed guest researcher at the Knowledge Centre, Faculty of Education, Hogeschool Utrecht, University of Applied Sciences and the Institute for Sign Language and Deaf Studies, Netherlands (2014-2019) to identify features of sign language performing arts for the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) evaluation tool for sign languages. Dr. Small served as Evaluator of the CEFR Training Program when it was first initiated by CCSD (2018-2021) and when it was extended to engage LSQ, Indigenous, Black and Racialized Deaf [IBRD] sign language instructors nationally. She was Project Manager and author of the Deaf Artists and Theatres Toolkit (DATT) 2016, through Cahoots Theatre Company. She has researched the Canadian sign language industry in academic training programs and in cultural institutions. She is currently working with CCSD to establish a mentor model and guidebook for interpreters and sign language instructors to work with theatres, museums and galleries across Canada.
Dr. Anita Small is recipient of the Kathy Dolby Award, the singular national award given by the Canadian Deaf community to a hearing individual.