AUCD 360 - June 2019

Recognize Exceptional Leadership

The AUCD Awards represent the exemplars within our network, and local, state, and national partners. We know the depth, breadth, and expertise of our trainees, advocates, professionals, and partners is extraordinary and deserving of recognition. In preparation for this year's conference, we invite you to nominate someone who truly inspires you in the spirit of the conference theme: Leading Change Together! Read more... 

WITH Foundation Awards $392,000 to Promote Comprehensive and Accessible Healthcare

AUCD was awarded funding to support the Turn up the HEAT On (Health is for Everyone Action Team). The project builds on successful efforts led by the AUCD to include Developmental Disabilities in medical education. The project will implement Developmental Disability (DD) competency in medical education by leveraging AUCD's network to build capacity and develop leadership of medical schools in a three- state pilot (West Virginia, Kentucky, and Alabama).

AUCD Announces New Senior Program Manager for UCEDD Technical Assistance, Sarah DeMaio

Sarah DeMaio will be moving from her role providing TA to the LEND and DBP programs with AUCD's MCH TA team to Senior Program Manager of the UCEDD TA team at AUCD. Sarah brings to this role 15 years of experience working with people with disabilities and leading initiatives to increase inclusion in a wide range of arenas. In her role on the MCH TA team she coordinated Autism CARES network outreach and supported the LEND Family Discipline Network. Prior to that role, she was the executive director for the Autism Society of Northern Virginia. As a sibling of an adult with Down syndrome, she will bring her passion and expertise in family engagement and transition to adulthood to her work on the UCEDD team.  Read more... 

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AUCD Professional Fellow Alumni Wins Prestigious State Department Award 

Maria Omare, an alumna of the ADA International Fellowship Program's Spring 2017 Cohort, has been selected for the prestigious Alumni Impact Award (AIA) by the Professional Fellows Division of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The Alumni Impact Award recognizes exceptional contributions made by Professional Fellows Program (PFP) alumni to their communities and enables them to meet with U.S. Ambassadors in their countries and the Assistant Secretary of State to share strategies about how the U.S. government can support young international leaders in their field. Read more...

Longtime ICI Staff Member Invited to Join Employment "Dream Team" MA UCEDD/LEND 

The Dream Team is composed of experts who have contributed greatly to increasing competitive community employment for people with disabilities. All Dream Team members are experts in supported employment, a strategy to empower people with disabilities to work in integrated settings in their communities. Read more...

Kansas LEND Receives Diversity & Inclusion Award 

Kansas LEND was honored to accept the University of Kansas Medical Center Executive Vice Chancellor award for Diversity & Inclusion in April. LEND was nominated by Alice Zhang, LEND Postdoctoral Fellow and was supported by our community partner Families Together, Inc. The work to expand understanding, acceptance, inclusion and belonging on our KUMC campus and beyond continues. Pictured: Jessica Schuttler, Ph.D., LEND Training Director, Alice Zhang, LEND Postdoctoral Fellow and Dr. Robert Simari, KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor" Read more...

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22q at the Bronx Zoo (NY UCEDD/LEND)

Rose F. Kennedy UCEDD/LEND's Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) partnered with Einstein Buddies, (a medical school service learning club), Children's Hospital at Montefiore 22q11.2 specialty clinic, Bernice Morrow's Einstein Genetics lab and Harboring Hearts to sponsor 22q at the Bronx Zoo. The International 22q11.2 Read more...

Alabama CIL Uses RTC:Rural Advocacy Toolkit to teach youth

Disability Rights & Resources, a Center for Independent Living in Birmingham, Alabama, is using RTC:Rural's Advocacy Skill Building Toolkit to introduce and teach advocacy skills to youth with disabilities by conducting workshops across Alabama. With assistance from a grant from the Alabama Council on Developmental Disabilities, Disability Rights & Resources was able to hire a Community Empowerment Specialist to organize the advocacy workshops.
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Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) SENSE Theatre enriches performances with Musical Talent from Artist on the Autism Spectrum

Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) investigator Blythe Corbett and participants of the Winter 2019 SENSE Theatre program recently performed the original musical "The Makeover" to appreciative audiences. Their performances were the culmination of practice and hard work put in by young actors with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), typically developing peer actors, and, new this year, a new musician who is also on the spectrum. Read more...

MMI Receives a Two-year Grant from NIH to Explore How Children with Cerebral Palsy Perceive Pain

Max Kurz, Ph.D., an associate professor of physical therapy at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, received a two-year grant for more than $400,000 from the National Institutes of Health to explore how children with cerebral palsy perceive pain. The grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which Dr. Kurz described as a "high-risk, high-reward" grant, will let him and his collaborators examine how the brains of children with cerebral palsy process sensory information. Read more...

Tracy Glass, PATHS Program Director is Prepared to Give All to the Program (TX UCEDD)

Tracy Glass, the PATHS Program Director, is devoted to the PATHS Program and has been working to improve the program. The PATHS Program allows students with or without disabilities the opportunity to a human service career tract as well as the skills to live independently. This program has changed the lives of many students with disabilities that did not have a career direction or the ability to live independently. Read more...

The Boggs Center (NJ UCEDD/LEND) Celebrates Graduation of New Jersey Partners in Policymaking Class of 2018-2019

The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities hosted a graduation ceremony to celebrate the accomplishments of the New Jersey Partners in Policymaking Class of 2018-2019. New Jersey Partners in Policymaking is a leadership development and advocacy education program for adults with developmental disabilities and family members available through The Boggs Center with funding from the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities. Read more...

Call for Proposals - CONNECT #PacRim2020

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Center on Disability Studies, in the College of Education, is accepting presentation proposals to be featured at the 35th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability & Diversity at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, March 2-3, 2020. Submissions are being accepted from June 1, 2019-December 1, 2019 at www.pacrim.hawaii.edu. Read more...

The Center on Disability and Development at Texas A&M University Announces the 2017 PATHS (TX UCEDD)

The Postsecondary Access and Training in Human Services (PATHS) program at Texas A&M University is honored to announce the 2017 graduates. This year, 36 young men and women successfully graduated from the PATHS certificate program. The PATHS certificate program was developed in 2010 by Dr. Cheryl Grenwelge, Director of Transition Service Programs, Associate Professor, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension while working with the Center on Disability and Development at Texas A&M University. Read more...

Parent Advocacy Training for Somali Parents of Children with Autism (ME UCEDD and NH-ME LEND)

The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (Maine UCEDD) partnered with New Mainers Public Health Initiative (NMPHI) to develop, deliver and evaluate parent advocacy training modules emphasizing Individualized Education Programs and advocacy within the K-12 system for Somali parents of children on the autism spectrum. NMPHI is a public health and social service agency headquartered in Lewiston, Maine that serves New Mainers-recent immigrants to this secondary resettlement area and their families.
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Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities (MCDD) Professional Development Training in a Rural Region

In partnership with The Children's League and the Judy Center, the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities at Kennedy Krieger Institute conducted a two-day ACT Raising Safe Kids training for professionals at the Allegany College of Maryland in Cumberland, Maryland on May 14-15, 2019. ACT Raising Safe Kids is a program developed by the American Psychological Association violence prevention office. Read more...

The Boggs Center (NJ UCEDD/LEND) Celebrates the Graduation of the 2018-2019 NJLEND Fellows at the 3rd Annual Maternal and Child Health Leadership Symposium

The Boggs Center celebrated the graduation of the 2018-2019 NJLEND Fellows at the New Jersey Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NJLEND) program's 3rd annual Maternal and Child Health Leadership Symposium. Held in New Brunswick at Children's Specialized Hospital, the event featured a keynote address, Life Course Research and Community Engagement to Improve Autism Outcomes, from Paul T. Shattuck, PhD, Associate Professor at Drexel University's A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, and was attended by those from the Rutgers community, New Jersey's Department of Children and Families, SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, and other state and community organizations. During the NJLEND Leadership Projects Poster Session, attendees had the opportunity to learn from each Fellow about the leadership project they conducted over the course of the academic year. Read more...

2019 ICI MA LEND Graduation

On May 10th the achievements of the 2019 LEND Fellow were celebrated at their graduation. During the event, 2019 highlights were shared including family visits, Title V program visits, work in community based organizations (CBOs), clinical and research reflections, and the Disability Policy Seminar in DC. Ron Benham, longtime former state Title V director, spoke to the group citing "Ron's rules for road" which emphasize kindness, dedication, remembering mentors and being a family advocate. Read more...

"MNLEND Fellow Speaks at Hollywood Fundraiser with Conan O'Brien

MNLEND Fellow Olivia Maccoux spoke at a sold-out Hollywood fundraiser headlined by comedian Conan O'Brien (pictured together). "In Stitches: A Night of Laughs with Conan and Friends" was covered by the Hollywood Reporter and raised over $300,000 to support critical research and programs that improve the quality of life for people living with hydrocephalus, an incurable lifelong condition that affects over one million Americans, and which Maccoux acquired when she was born three months premature. Read more...

Exciting Work Showcased at the LEND Poster Session

The full cohort of Leadership in Education for Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) trainees filled the atrium of the Van Nuys Medical Science Building's on April 26th for the LEND poster and networking session. Several disciplines were represented through year-long projects that were presented and explained by the students throughout the afternoon. Many of the projects had trainees working with university faculty, IU Health programs or partners from the Maternal & Child Health community in Indiana.  Read more...

Fellow Visits MN UCEDD from Kenya to Learn American Inclusive Employment Practices

Working in competitive employment is a long-term "and often difficult" goal for many people with disabilities. Those difficulties are even greater in developing countries like Kenya, but Daniel Mbugua Chege knows they can be overcome. "I believe in persistence," says Chege, an Inclusive Employment Fellow who established six community-based organizations in his native Kenya to reduce the stigmatization of people with disabilities while promoting their self-advocacy and economic self-reliance.  Read more...

Ohio UCEDD Program Director Supports Employment Transition Project in Africa

AUCD network members and international alumni of the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment (PFP-IDE) are creating lasting progress for inclusive employment in Africa! Dr. Margo Izzo, Program Director at The Ohio State University Nisonger Center, visited Tanzania to promote transition models with PFP-IDE alum Gwaliwa Mashaka, a deaf social entrepreneur who champions education and employment of women and girls with disabilities in science. Read more...

Alliston Provides Training, Promotes Employment for People with Disabilities through Fellowship Work in Kenya (MS UCEDD)

Dr. Jerry R. Alliston, associate director of The University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies (IDS), is an educator and champion for young people with disabilities. He promotes their inclusion in the community and workplace in Mississippi and across the United States. Read more...

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ODEP Input Opportunity: Section 12 (c) National Online Dialogue

Deadline: Friday, June 14, 2019

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), through its ePolicyWorks initiative, is hosting a national online dialogue to gather perspectives on Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Please share your ideas, individual stories, and personal experiences illustrating the impact of Section 14(c) on the employment of people with disabilities. The goal of this online dialogue is to capture perspectives about Section 14(c) based on individual input from those "on the ground." Information gleaned from the comments will then be summarized to provide ODEP an overview of Section 14(c) at the state and national levels. Read more...

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AAIDD 143rd Meeting 

June 24-27, 2019, Twin Cities, MN,

The 143rd AAIDD Annual Meeting will provide a forum for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, students and advocates to learn about innovations in our field that are being translated and implemented on a grander scale. Through knowledge translation we can change practices and policies through effectively communicating our research and creating change at all levels. In a political climate that is complex and dynamic, it is important to remain relevant through the thoughtful translation of our knowledge. Read more...

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