Born deaf to culturally deaf parents, and with a culturally deaf brother, Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins was valedictorian at the Texas School for the Deaf and attended Gallaudet.  She transferred to obtain a BA degree in Psychology at California State University at Northridge and followed with her Masters degree in Administration and Supervision.  She concluded her doctoral work at Pepperdine University in California with a Doctor of Education degree in Institutional Management.  

She became the chief administrator of a drug and alcohol recovery center for the deaf, which she created utilizing deaf staff persons, themselves recovering.  This was an unusual first in America.  She subsequently relocated to become the Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and has experienced unusual success with new and innovative programs and services.   These include remote interpreting services by videoconferencing, licensing of interpreters, educational reform for deaf and hard of hearing children, and a statewide program to provide telecommunication devices in the Commonwealth.  In addition to her work in public administration, she has had diverse and extensive professional experience in the fields of government, education, business and entertainment.

Because of her love of sports, Dr. Scoggins was elected in 1998 to the office of President of the USA Deaf Sports Federation and has led several U.S. Team Delegations since 1998 to Deaflympic and Pan Am Games. She was named to the Athletic Sports Hall of Fame in Irving, Texas.  Currently, she serves on the America’s Athletes with Disabilities as a Vice President since 2000.  She also served on the US Olympic Committee Board of Directors from 2000-2004. She served on the Los Angeles Cultural Arts Commission Advisory Board, was co-organizer of the Los Angeles Deaf Festival, a Board Member of the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness. She was co-founder of Deaf Festival in California in 1990-1991, along with Phyllis Frelich and Mel Carter and brought the concept of DeaFestival to Kentucky in 1993.  3,500 individuals attended the first DeaFestival-Kentucky in 1996 and 10,000 individuals attended the sixth production of DeaFestival-Kentucky which is rapidly becoming known as the East Coast premier event for the deaf and hard of hearing community. 

Dr. Scoggins is admired nationwide for her career as an actress.  She performed the lead role as Sarah in Children of a Lesser God in thirteen regional theatre productions across the United States and on Broadway. She has performed with National Theatre of the Deaf, Cleveland Playhouse and Access Theatre as well.   She appeared with Oprah Winfrey on television and has had other television engagements including commercials and, oddly enough, her voice was recorded as a scream in a cameo appearance on the television program Law and Order.   She appeared on the program Silent Network as Narrator for the performance of Partnership with Man and has received awards for her role as Producer of Tobey’s Tales.  She was presented with an award as winner of the 1991 National Education Film Festival Silver Apple award and the 1991 Governor’s Media Access Award in Children’s Programming.

Along with her business success, Dr. Scoggins has been recognized by many professional and philanthropic organizations for her expert contributions.  She was a board member for the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness (GLAD) for five years.  She has served as chair of the National Association of the Deaf, Media Advocacy Committee; as a delegate for the United Nations Human Rights Commission; and as a member of the Los Angeles Cultural Arts Commission Advisory Board, where she helped design long-range goals for accessibility for individuals with disabilities.  In 1999 she was presented with the Graduate School of Education and Psychology 1999 Distinguished Alumni Award by Pepperdine University.  In July of 2002, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) she was presented with the Frederick C. Schreiber, Distinguished Service award during the NAD National Convention in Washington, D.C.   As a 2004 Athens Torch Bearer, her most recent accomplishment was to carry the Olympic flame representing the deaf and hard of hearing community in St. Louis. for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Recently, she served as the NAD Region II Board representative and just has been elected as president of the National Association of the Deaf at the NAD conference for a two year term starting July 2006 to 2008.