The AUCD Board of Directors is seeking nominations from the network's Emerging Leader community to fill the newly created Emerging Leader Board Member voting position on the Board. The Emerging Leader Board Member will be a voting member on AUCD's national Board of Directors and serve as a representative of the Association and broader AUCD network. This position will bring the voice and perspective of the AUCD Emerging Leader Community, including but not limited to trainees and early career professionals in the network.

The Maine LEND graduated 12 Trainees from the program in May 2022. As part of demonstrations of Maternal and Child Health Competencies and LEND tenets, the Trainees each participated in an elective project that was presented at the end of April.

Louisiana's UCEDD, LSUHSC Human Development Center, is proud to see Louisiana LEND scholars receive honors from the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Allied Health Professions as they completed their respective programs on May 19th.

Two graduates of the Iowa LEND program were recently named the 2022 recipients of the Alfred Healy Leadership Award in Developmental Disabilities. Each year, Iowa's UCEDD awards a trainee, or trainees, who are nominated by LEND core faculty after completing the LEND program with distinction. This year's recipients are Flannery Currin, Assistive Technology and Family trainee, and Sofie Dollison, Public Health trainee. Nominees share how the LEND program has demonstrated the importance of family-centered, coordinated, and culturally competent care, for individuals with disabilities and families. They also describe their future career plans and proposed leadership activities, which the award will fund.

This year, 27 trainees completed the Iowa Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (Iowa LEND) program. Their graduation ceremony was held on May 5, two days after they had presented at the third annual virtual Iowa LEND Research Poster Symposium. As in previous years, the Symposium provided an impressive display of the talent, hard work and dedication of these emerging leaders.

From developing more inclusive 4-H programs to identifying best practices in teaching medical and dental students about intellectual and developmental disabilities, the 2021-22 MN LEND fellows made significant contributions. On May 19, the program celebrated their accomplishments.

Cow Tipping Press founder Bryan Boyce (MNLEND, 2020-21) recently wrapped another series of the organization's writing courses for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), bringing the cumulative number of students served to nearly 600. Through networking conversations with fellow MNLEND alumni, Boyce has begun offering courses beyond Minnesota's borders, a result of the surge in interest for online learning due to the pandemic. Most of the coursework can be completed online, but the Cow Tipping team goes on location at the end to present published books featuring students' work and celebrate the experience.

This interactive map highlights Emerging Leaders from across the country. Check out what emerging leaders across the country are doing to support resilience and self-determination.

Of the multitude of meaningful didactic and experiential learning activities afforded by the NJLEND program, none is quite as unique as the Cohort Crest project. This project, which runs the span of the fellowship, entails the cohort working together as a group to create a crest, or emblem of some sort, which represents our communal identity as a cohort. While a seemingly simple idea, this activity serves several purposes (both overt and covert) that help us to strengthen and hone our skills as emerging leaders.

This spring, MNLEND Community Fellow Julie Li Yang is engaging in outreach activities to promote Help Me Grow resources with the Hmong community in the Twin Cities and surrounding area. Yang is mentored by Dr. Jennifer Hall-Lande in the Minnesota LEND program at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) at the University of Minnesota. By promoting early monitoring and early developmental screening resources at tabling events and through social media, Yang found that parents are often reluctant to discuss early intervention services due to the shame and stigma surrounding autism diagnosis, specific to the Hmong community.