Kitty was born hard of hearing and became deaf at 19 years old.  She learned ASL when she was 21 and has been active in the Deaf Community ever since.

Kitty’s family consists of her husband Barry Critchfield (Sign name ABC) and their fur-daughter Baybee. In December they will be celebrating 4 years of marriage.  She is excited because she is sealed with her eternal companion, best friend, and partner in crime.  They love the great outdoors, walking, photography, gardening, bird watching, and stargazing.

Kitty has had three different careers: a data entry clerk which is where her computer skills came from.  Kitty’s second career was working for 15 years in the field of deafness:  in vocational rehabilitation, mental health service provider, community support specialist.  Her current career is a new experience working as a contract Support Service Provider (SSP) to be a new name Co-Navigator (CN) working with DeafBlind and low vision individuals with hearing loss. Kitty has worked 20+ years as a volunteer SSP/CN until 5 years ago.

Kitty has held a few callings in her short time as a new member of the church. Kitty was an investigator in 2015 and was baptized in Feb of 2016.  She has seen the blessings flow into her life in so many ways.  Her previous callings include being:  Youth Sunday School Teacher for ages 11-15 and served as a seminary teacher online with her husband for a year. Kitty is currently a Sign Language Instructor,  since 2016. While this was not a calling, Kitty had an unexpected service opportunity to work with Emmalee Christensen on Deaf Saints 4 Christ and One by One behind the scenes.  Kitty has really enjoyed this experience and it led her to be called recently to serve on the 2023 Deaf Symposium Committee as Social Media Specialist.