Making Space for Every Voice
A CODA who learned American Sign Language before English, she turned a childhood spent bridging two worlds into a 30-year real estate career, a national referral network for Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers, and a best-selling book - all powered by one simple philosophy: Just Try.
There is a version of the real estate professional the industry trained us to expect: someone who closes deals, tracks market trends and moves on to the next transaction. Maria Gallucci arrived from an entirely different direction. She came through a childhood spent interpreting for her Deaf parents, through the pressures of becoming a young mother before she had any clear plan, through more than three decades of learning to read rooms and advocate for people who were not always being heard - and through the quiet, persistent act of stuttering her whole life and speaking up anyway. The career she has built at Gallucci Homes at Compass in Colorado is where every one of those threads finally comes together.
Gallucci is a CODA - a Child of Deaf Adults - and ASL was her first language. Growing up between the Deaf and hearing worlds taught her early that people do not all communicate or experience life the same way, and that being different should never mean being overlooked. By the time she was 12 years old, she was helping her Deaf parents navigate the purchase of their first home, sitting across from adults and trying to make sense of conversations that were far beyond her years. She could not have known then that the experience was the opening chapter of a 30-year real estate career that would eventually place her among the top 1.5% of REALTORS® nationwide.
Her work today spans residential real estate, investment properties, new construction, land, relocation and luxury through Gallucci Homes at Compass. She is also the founder of ASL Realty, a national referral network connecting Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers with real estate professionals who communicate in ASL, and ASL @ Compass, which connects ASL-fluent professionals within Compass and builds awareness around accessibility. She is a best-selling author, a speaker, a podcast and television host, and a board member for organizations serving the Deaf community and survivors of violence. None of it was planned in a straight line. She went to work and figured it out.
The turning point: leaning into what made her different
For years, Gallucci was building a successful real estate career while keeping her background largely separate from her professional identity. The turning point came when she stopped trying to fit the expected mold and started asking a different question entirely: not how she could fit into the industry, but what she could bring to it that was not already there.
The answer was rooted in who she had always been. Being a CODA, growing up using ASL, learning to navigate two worlds simultaneously - these were not just personal history. They were a professional advantage she had not yet fully claimed. When she leaned into that background, everything shifted. ASL Realty followed, then ASL @ Compass, then the book, then the speaking and advocacy work that has since taken her to libraries, community organizations, the Hearing Loss Association of America and beyond.
Gallucci has said that the biggest turning point in her career was the moment she stopped hiding what made her different and started using it. That reframe, she has noted, changed everything - not just for her business, but for the consumers who had long been underserved by an industry that rarely asked how it could communicate better with them.
A book 15 years in the making
For roughly 15 years, writing a book appeared on Gallucci's New Year's resolution list. Year after year, it stayed there. Eventually, she has said, she got tired of hearing herself say she was going to do it. Once she truly committed, the manuscript was completed in about nine months.
The result was "Raised in Silence," a best-selling work that Gallucci describes as being about much more than Deaf culture. It is about communication, family, resilience, leadership, inclusion and LGBTQ+ belonging - and about what happens when people make a genuine effort to understand someone who experiences the world differently than they do. The book's reach surprised even its author. The response she has found most meaningful has come from readers with no connection to the Deaf community at all, people who told her they saw themselves in her story. That reaction, she has said, was when she understood that "Raised in Silence" was about something much larger than she had originally realized.
Becoming a best-selling author opened a new chapter in her career: speaking engagements, podcast appearances, radio and television, and conversations with organizations she would never otherwise have reached. She has also expanded into hosting, giving other people a platform to tell stories that can shift perspectives - a role she has said she wants to keep growing.
Shaped by challenge, driven by resilience
Gallucci has been open about the challenges that shaped her. Growing up as a CODA meant taking on responsibilities most children do not carry - serving as a bridge between her parents and a hearing world that was not always designed with them in mind. ASL was her first language, and she was regularly navigating adult conversations and situations well before most of her peers.
Something she has also spoken about publicly is that she has stuttered since childhood and still does today. She has noted the particular irony of being a hearing child who often helped her Deaf parents communicate while sometimes struggling to get her own words out. She never let her stutter determine whether she would speak up. Today she addresses audiences, hosts podcasts and shows, appears on radio and television, and negotiates on behalf of clients - all as a matter of professional routine. She still stutters sometimes, she has said. She simply does not let it stop her.
She also became a young mother, which brought its own set of pressures: supporting herself, raising a child and building a future simultaneously, without a clear roadmap. She has said that resilience, for her, does not mean something does not affect you - it means you keep going anyway, adjusting and finding another way, and sometimes surprising yourself with what you are capable of.
Thirty years of building from the ground up
Gallucci has been in real estate for more than 30 years. The skills that made her effective in the field - negotiating, reading a room, advocating for someone, finding another way when the obvious path is blocked - were skills she had been developing since childhood, long before she knew they would become professional assets. When she found real estate, she has said, much of what she had learned growing up came naturally to her.
The results of that career are reflected in a long list of recognitions: Top 1% of Colorado REALTORS®, Top 1.5% of REALTORS® nationwide, the 5280 Magazine Double Black Diamond Award, RealTrends recognition, Five Star Real Estate Agent, the 5280 Five Star Professional Award, the Denver Metro REALTOR® Association Diamond Excellence Award and the South Metro REALTOR® Association 5-Carat Diamond Circle Club Award. She has said she is proud of those achievements and the hard work behind them - but that at this point in her life, impact matters just as much as production.
Her community involvement reflects that priority. She serves on the boards of DOVE (Deaf Overcoming Violence through Empowerment), Rocky Mountain Deaf School and the Colorado Association of the Deaf, and has served as Treasurer and Secretary with DOVE. She has said she does not want to simply talk about inclusion - she wants to be involved in the work and help create real change.
What success looks like now
Gallucci has said that her definition of success has changed over the course of her career. It used to be about production and numbers. Those things still matter to her - she describes herself as competitive and proud of the business she has built. But the definition has expanded. Today, she has said, success is having a business that does not own her: being able to make an impact, have a life, spend time with the people she loves and use what she has learned to open doors for others.
The next chapter she is building brings together pieces of her career that once seemed unrelated. She is continuing to grow her real estate business and expand her work in the luxury market, while also growing ASL Realty and the network of professionals available to serve Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers. At the same time, "Raised in Silence" has opened a new lane: expanded speaking work, media appearances and conversations about communication, inclusion, leadership and human connection.
Her philosophy - Just Try - is the thread she wants to take further. She has been clear that the goal is not simply to talk about inclusion but to help people practice it in everyday life, leadership and business. Her advice to aspiring professionals is direct: stop waiting until you feel completely ready. Start the business. Make the phone call. Ask the question. Walk into the room. Write the first page. You do not need perfection to move forward.
This profile is reported from publicly available information and materials provided by Maria Gallucci. Nothing in this article is presented as a quotation unless it appears in quotation marks with attribution.