Charting the Course to Employment Success With Family Supports and Cross-System Partnerships

Sheli Reynolds

LifeCourse Nexus, UMKC

Director

Sheli is the key developer of the Charting the LifeCourse framework and tools and provides overall direction to the LifeCourse Nexus. Her passion, knowledge, and experience comes from growing up as a sibling of a brother with developmental disabilities.

She is committed to research, demonstrations and implementation of evidence-based practices that enhance person- and family-centered organizational, policy and systems change. She currently serves as the Associate Director at UMKC Institute for Human Development, Missouri’s UCEDD, where she has worked for over 25 years and is a Research Associate Professor with the UMKC School of Medicine. She is committed to being and ally and advocating alongside people with disabilities and their families. Sheli is an AAIDD Fellow and serves as the chair for the AAIDD Family Interest Network. She is honored to have served on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities under the Obama administration. She has her masters in Occupational Therapy from Rockhurst University and earned her doctorate in Public Administration and Sociology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City with a focus on family support research and policy for families of individuals with disabilities across the lifespan.

Sarah Adams

LifeCourse Nexus, UMKC

Assistant Director

Sarah Adams is a Senior Educational Programs Coordinator, who manages and oversees the Nexus training team and its day-to-day operations. Sarah believes that everyone should have the opportunity to live their Good Life. Sarah has a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Baker University and a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Science from Iowa State University. Before coming to IHD, Sarah worked for 16 years in the Liberty, Missouri Public Schools as a Family and Consumer Science Teacher and as an Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Coordinator. Sarah spends her free time with her family-husband and two sons. She also loves to travel and attend sporting events with her family.