Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, she attended mainstream school there before graduating from the Alabama School for the Deaf. Tawny then obtained her degrees in Deaf Studies, Sociology, and Deaf Education from Gallaudet University along with receiving her law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. Tawny currently resides in Germantown, MD and works full-time as the Education Policy Counsel at the NAD. She also serves as the chair of the National Education Strategy Team and as the coordinator of the Education Advocates Program at the NAD. Tawny is the proud godmother of four deaf children: Avant, Leilani, Oriana and Talon. She loves reading fiction books and scrapbooking inbetween her travels around America for many education advocacy related presentations!