Cameron Fontes

DSL Staff—Executive Assistant

DSL has been part of my family’s life since my brother Bailey was born in August 2002. I didn’t know what Down syndrome was at the time, I was just irritated that whoever was in charge at the hospital wouldn’t let my brother come home right away. I thought his webbed toes were cool and bragged about them to everyone at school. By the time someone told me or I figured out how Bailey was different from my friends’ siblings, I didn’t care. I credit my brother with helping me learn not just to coexist with other people’s differences but to accept and embrace them in my everyday life.

I graduated from WKU with degrees in English (Creative Writing) and French with a minor in Film Studies. In January 2019 I took a film course where we traveled to the Sundance Film Festival, and in July 2019 I studied abroad in Paris for a month. I also helped restart a group on campus called C.O.R.E. (Companions of Respected Elders) that visited a local nursing home every month to do seasonal crafts and activities with their residents. We even helped implement a program called TimeSlips that uses improvisational storytelling to work with elders in memory care.

Outside of work, I’m a playwright and actor. I love to take in as much of the Louisville arts scene as I can. Ballet, orchestra, film—you name it, I’ll be there. Occasionally I even pick up substitute projection shifts at the Speed Cinema at the Speed Art Museum on the weekend (I interned there for eight months in 2022-2023). I also love to sing in the choir at Highland Baptist Church.

In the next few years, I look forward to traveling more and pursuing professional acting and writing opportunities.