Rep. Joelle Martin, NH-ME LEND graduate, was recently honored with the New Hampshire Legislator of the Year award by New Futures, New Hampshire's leading health policy, and advocacy organization. After working for a decade as an executive in publishing, Martin's focus shifted to education and advocacy. As her daughter, who has a life-threatening food allergy, entered preschool, she began to educate her family and school community about severe food allergies. Soon after, she developed an educational program about life-threatening allergies for teachers and staff.

The AUCD Board has appointed John Tschida, MPP, as the acting Executive Director of AUCD effective Monday, January 6, 2020. John Tschida, MPP, has spent more than 20 years using data and research to drive policy change and service development for individuals with disabilities. Before joining AUCD in February of 2017, he was appointed as director if the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. NIDILRR is the federal government's premier applied research agency impacting individuals with disabilities.

Former OHSU LEND trainees, Hannah Sanford-Keller and Bethany Sloane are now faculty at the Institute on Development and Disability (IDD) and UCEDD at Oregon Health & Science University. They work to bridge diversity efforts across OHSU centers and programs with the broader University and the AUCD network. Their roles include serving as co-leads of the IDD Diversity Committee. This work began during a yearlong experience as LEND trainees.

The AUCD Emerging Leaders Community, in partnership with the AUCD Councils have launched a new leadership opportunity for IDDRC, LEND, and UCEDD trainees!

AUCD is excited to announce that recruitment is now open for the 2020 AUCD Emerging Leaders Map! This year's theme is "Enhancing Access: Opening Doors with and for People with Disabilities."

Ariel Schwartz, a former LEND fellow from Boston LEND at the Massachusetts ICI/UCEDD received this year's CORE Trainee Research Award. The Council on Research and Evaluation (CORE) recognizes outstanding research accomplished by a current or recent AUCD/LEND trainee.

Families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report chronic and high levels of stress. A group of MNLEND Fellows are partnering with a local nonprofit organization, Communities Engaging Autism (CEA), to support families as they face the challenges of raising children with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD).

On behalf of AUCD Nominating Committee Chair, Bruce Keisling, and Board President, Amy Hewitt, AUCD is pleased to announce the newly elected members of the AUCD Board. These new members will begin their three-year term at the AUCD 2019 Conference.

The professional advisory board of Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) has selected Samuel J. Eckrich, MS for a 2019 Young Scientist Research Awards. Sam is a doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology program at University of Central Florida.

Welcome to the 2019-2020 cohort of 22 trainees, 16 from New Hampshire and 6 from Maine who began the LEND year on August 30. Consistent with the program's goal of recruiting trainees from diverse backgrounds, we welcome self-advocates, family members, graduate students, and professionals representing a wide variety of professional fields including early intervention, education, family medicine, nursing, communication sciences and disorders, occupational therapy, journalism, humanities, human services, mental health, social work, public policy, and political science.