AUCD - Trainee-Professional Networking Breakfast

List of professionals for breakfast (122KB) [download]

Prompt questions for breakfast (644KB) [download]

Alyx Medlock, MS, CCC-SLP

Topic of Expertise: Speech Language Pathology

NM - University of New Mexico

Alyx is a speech-language pathologist who has worked with interdisciplinary, family-centered teams throughout her career. She is a life-long New Mexican with deep family and cultural ties to the state. She was the Director of the Early Childhood Evaluation Program (ECEP) and continues to work clinically, providing interdisciplinary, developmental and diagnostic evaluations to children under three. Her previous experience, in running a private practice, fostered varied professional and personal experiences throughout the state and across the lifespan. She has experience working with families of children with prenatal drug and alcohol exposure, individuals with ASD, children and adults with feeding and swallowing difficulties, and many other populations.

Jeiri (pronounced "Jay-dee") Flores, BS

NY - Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities

Facebook: Jeiri Flores
Twitter: @jeiri_flores
Instagram: @dangerously_gifted

Jeiri Flores is a strong, passionate Puerto Rican disability rights activist from Rochester, NY. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in the study of Sociology and African-American Studies at SUNY Brockport in 2014. She serves as a resource for residents in her community by connecting them to existing services and supports. As a disability advocate Jeiri shares her unique perspective at various colleges and conferences where she introduces attendees to the struggles and invisibility people with disabilities face. She provides insight regarding inclusion, citizenship, disability intersectionality and challenges that remain unaddressed by society. She hopes to influence young disabled people to fulfill their purpose and create a new a narrative for what it means to be disabled.

Kathleen Lehman, Ph.D.

Topic of Expertise: Medical Interpreting

WA - Center on Human Development and Disabilities

I have worked in a variety of settings with individuals with disabilities-group care, adult family home, residential treatment, foster care, community mental health, schools, and the LEND program. In the LEND program, I have found a home. I enjoy working with my interdisciplinary colleagues and the trainees.

Kara Ayers, PhD

Topic of Expertise: Parenting with a disability

OH - University of Cincinnati Center for Exellence in Developmental Disabilities
Twitter: @UCUCEDD and @DrKaraAyers
Facebook: UCUCEDD

Dr. Kara Ayers is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati. As the Associate Director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Dr. Ayers applies her professional knowledge, research experience, and personal perspective to make systemic changes to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Her areas of interest and research include disability policy, parenting with a disability, self-advocacy, psychosocial development with a disability, and disability in the media. Her dissertation focused on the psychosocial development of children and adolescents with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. Dr. Ayers is the co-founder of the Disabled Parenting Project, a peer-to-peer support network for parents with disabilities. She has served for the past 5 years on the boards of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation and The Association of Successful Parenting. Dr. Ayers received her PhD in clinical psychology from Nova Southeastern University.

Kim Solondz, MS, OTR/L

OR - Institute on Development and Disability

I have been working as an occupational therapist since 1999 with a specialty in pediatrics. I am also the director of our accredited OT fellowship program and have a great interest in promoting inter-professional training for pediatric occupational therapists. In addition, I have special expertise in the role of occupational therapy in helping youth, young adults, and their families navigate through transition from pediatric to adult systems of health care. I am currently leading our Lifespan Transition Clinic and sit on the OHSU Task force on Transition.

Maureen van Stone, Esq. MS

Topic of Expertise: Law

MD - Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities

I began my career as a clinician working on a neurobehavioral inpatient unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute, which served children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and severe problem behavior. While working full-time, I earned a master's degree in developmental psychology with a concentration on childhood disorders. Eventually, I left Kennedy Krieger to pursue my law degree with a concentration in children's legal issues. Following law school, I earned a postgraduate legal fellowship to create Project HEAL (Health, Education, Advocacy, and Law), a medical-legal partnership at Kennedy Krieger Institute. For the last 13 years, I've provided legal representation to children with disabilities and their families, as well as engaged in local, state, and national policy work on behalf of individuals with disabilities across the lifespan. My entire professional career has been dedicated to working on behalf of children with disabilities and their families.

A. Pablo Juarez, M.Ed., BCBA

Topic of Expertise: Special Education

TN - Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities
Twitter: @APabloJuarez

Pablo Juárez received undergraduate training in ABA at the University of North Texas (2000), his graduate training in Special Education at Vanderbilt University (2005). He currently serves as the Director of Vanderbilt Kennedy Center's Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD), and is a faculty member within the Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Special Education at Vanderbilt. TRIAD's scope of work includes autism assessment, early intervention services, inpatient and outpatient behavior analytic services, school based behavioral and academic consultations and services, professional development for educational/medical/community practitioners, community engagement, and numerous research projects.

 Verity L. Rodrigues, PhD

Topic of Expertise: Mental Health

TN - Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Twitter: @VKCTRIAD and @Vanderbilt_KC

As a school and clinical psychologist at TRIAD, I work across TRIAD's school-based professional development team and provide clinical services within the Division of Developmental Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. My work related to autism and mental health is represented through my efforts working with educators to help them better understand the signs, symptoms, and opportunities for supporting individuals with disabilities and comorbid mental health concerns and through my work directly with children and families with disabilities and/or mental health concerns. I am interested in developing manualized approaches to building and sustaining best-practice classrooms, developing systems for embedding instructional coaching practices into school systems to improve academic, social, and emotional outcomes for students with disabilities and co-occurring mental health concerns, and using remote technology to provide support to educators in rural and under-resourced areas.

 Zach DeBerry, MS, RD, CDE

Topic of Expertise: Nutrition

TN - Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities

I began my experience in 2013 at the University of Tennessee Boling CDD LEND/UCEDD program as a trainee while pursuing my graduate degree in Clinical Nutrition at the University of Memphis. In 2015, as a staff member at BCDD, I had the opportunity to continue to engage in the LEND program as a clinician. I acquired multiple roles including those of LEND Training Director and NIRS Data Coordinator in 2017. I have strong understanding of the LEND program from the perspective of a trainee, supervising clinician, and as training director.

I continue to work with patients with inborn errors of metabolism at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital on a biweekly basis. I am committed to providing quality care to underserved populations. I continue to enjoy the task of instructing advanced level graduate students, medical residents, and post-doctoral fellows in both clinical and didactic learning environments.