2021 Anne Rudigier Award

November 22, 2021

The Anne Rudigier Award is named for Anne Rudigier, a young woman who demonstrated that one individual's commitment, energy, love of life, and respect for all people can be shared and can persevere through others. The Award is presented by the Rudigier Family in loving memory of their daughter Anne and of the values she held in her life and in her work.

 

Yue Xu, Graduate Student

University of Illinois, Chicago, IL

Yue is a current graduate student in the PhD program in Disability Studies at UIC, a current Institute of Disabilty and Human Development (IDHD, Illinois UCEDD trainee), and a Illinois LEND (IL LEND) graduate. Yue excelled during her LEND fellowship, volunteering over 300 hours at Grupo Salto, a Spanish-speaking parent peer support group and the UIC Developmental Disability Family Clinics serving Latinx children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Yue's scholarly and professional achievements continue to put her on a positive leadership trajectory and make her an outstanding candidate for this award.

Yue recently defended her dissertation project titled "Evaluating the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effects of a culturally adapted parent psycho-education intervention for Chinese immigrant families of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)". This project exemplifies the integration of family practice values, community empowerment ideals, and cultural factors into a comprehensive intervention (Parents Taking Action or PTA) to support Chinese immigrant families of children with ASD. This was an ambitious dissertation that involved culturally adapting the PTA intervention and piloting it in telehealth format with 28 Chinese American families in Chicago and New York. Yue's committee unanimously agreed that her's was one of the best dissertations in the PhD program in Disability Studies at UIC.