Staff

Image Description: Photo of Elizabeth (Liz) Schneider (she/her/hers), a smiling woman with brown hair in front of a light blue background.

Liz Schneider is the Association of University Centers on Disabilities' Executive Assistant. She provides executive and administrative support, is the AUCD Board Liaison, and provides support for Accessibility at AUCD.

Liz has been providing executive and administrative support for several years at nonprofit organizations and universities, ... READ MORE >

Image Description: Headshot photo of John Tschida, a smiling man with glasses, graying brown hair and goatee, wearing a navy suit, white shirt, and red and blue patterned tie.

John Tschida, MPP, is the executive director of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). He 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 as associate executive di... READ MORE >

Talk to me about: Interdisciplinary Training, Technical Assistance, Quality Improvement, Early Childhood

Danielle Webber, MSW, is the Director of AUCD’s Communitiy Inclusion Team. Her responsibilities include overseeing the development, delivery, and evaluation of TA provided to the UCEDD network through the UCEDD Resource Center (URC). Danielle brings almost fifteen years of experience with AUCD, its network centers, and partner organizations, to this role.

Previously, Danielle served as Senior Manager AUCD’s Public Health team leading... READ MORE >

Image Description: Image of male smiling with styled short brown hair and wearing half blue, half white glasses that are faded horizontally at the middle and a dark blue sweater with a zipper.

Brandon Lewis, MPH, CPH, is the Data Support Manager supporting Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LENDs), University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs), Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAHs), Pediatric Pulmonary Centers (PPCs), and De... READ MORE >

Margaux Whitehead is a Program Specialist on the UCEDD Resource Center technical assistance team. Her responsibilities include program evaluation and direct technical support to UCEDD’s across the national network.

Margaux holds a bachelor’s degree in public health and social work from Loyola University Chicago. <... READ MORE >

Image Description: Image of smiling woman with long blond hair wearing a black and white print shirt and necklace.

Becky completed a master's degree in Public Health at Virginia Tech with a concentration in health education and promotion. Previously, Becky worked with the community service board for Southwest Virginia coordinating risk management activities, monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic, and overseeing various healthcare facilities delivering mental health and disability services.... READ MORE >

Jackie Czyzia, MPH, is the Director of AUCD's MCH Engagement Team. Her responsibilities include overseeing the development, delivery, and evaluation of TA provided to LEND and Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) training programs through the Interdisciplinary Technical Assistance Center on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (ITAC). With subject matter expertise and leadership experience in pregnancy and infant health, Jackie brings over nine years of ex... READ MORE >

Mollie Blafer (she/her) has an M.Ed. in College Student Personnel Administration from James Madison University and a B.A. in Sociology from SUNY Cortland. Before joining AUCD as the Program Manager for the Emerging Leaders Community, she served as the Network Data and Systems Specialist for a place-based county initiative in North Carolina working to ensure families and children have access to resources for healthy development. Mollie was responsible for developing and managing a referral dat... READ MORE >

Image Description: Photo of Jeanette Cordova

Jeanette M. Cordova is the Technical Assistance Program Manager (Bilingual) for AUCD's Maternal and Child Health Technical Assistance (TA) Team. Her responsibilities include manage projects, initiatives, and meetings that address the objectives of our funder's training programs and will actively promote continued improvement for individual programs and the fulfillment of broader workforce development goals outlined in the Autis... READ MORE >

Image Description: Photo of Dana Kim, a smiling Asian-American woman with short black hair. She is wearing a black shirt in front of a white background. 

Dana Kim is the Program Manager for the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P). Her responsibilities include connecting with stakeholders across the AIR-P and AUCD networks to lead event planning and maintain engagement from AIR-P's Collaborating Research Entities (CREs). She provides administrativ... READ MORE >

Image Description: Rachel, a white woman with medium-length brown hair, wears large floral earrings and a white long sleeved shirt and smiles at the camera. She stands next to a white column with trees and clouds in the background.

Rachel Miller is a Program Specialist for AUCD’s Maternal and Child Health technical assistance team. Her responsibilities include supporting LENDs and DBPs through AUCD's cooperative agreement with MCHB's Division of MCH Workforce Development and dis... READ MORE >

Ms. Glymph brings 20 years of diversified public health experience to AUCD. This diversified experience has provided the opportunity to work collaboratively with other organizations to develop partnerships and establish proactive efforts wherever public health is and insuring public health for all.

Ms. Glymph formerly served as the senior manager for community violence and intervention programs for the University of Maryland Capital Region Health, where she led multifaceted community-... READ MORE >

Tida holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the University of Maryland. Before AUCD, Tida worked at the National Human Genome Research Institute to understand causes of non-communicable diseases, identify targets for intervention, and mechanisms for disease prevention. During college, she formulated a public health initiative about COVID-19 and recommendations to improve public health programs for underserved populations such as those with Opioid Use disorders.

Tida&rsq... READ MORE >

Luwam Yohanes is excited to be joining AUCD as a Program Specialist for the Public Health team. She received her Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Maternal, Family and Child Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Luwam’s previous work as a Registered Behavioral Technician at Easterseals UCP gave her the opportunity to work directly with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This experience sparked her passion for improvi... READ MORE >

Holly Hohmeister, MS, is the Project Consultant for the Local Vaccine Outreach Initiative under the AUCD's Public Health Team. She provides technical assistance to the project partners engaged in COVID-19 vaccine outreach to the disability community, which include Developmental Disability Organizations, UCEDD and LEND Regional Hubs, and AUCD Network Trainees. She also facilitates the National Learning Community for this initiative.

Holly has over 15 years of experience working with no... READ MORE >

Image description: Photograph of Madeline Ray, white woman with brown hair and glasses, smiling. 

Madeline got her start in public health working on overdose prevention for Rhode Island Hospital. She has worked as a translator for IMSS (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social), the largest public health institution in Latin America; and as a consultant for Mexico's INSP (Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública). She has worked on the Nav... READ MORE >

Talk to me about: Expanding access and increasing equity in disasters and pandemics; Whole community (inclusive) emergency planning, Civic engagement, Public health law, Climate change and disability

Image Description: Susan Wolf-Fordham, JD, MPA. Senior Program Manager
Deputy Director, National Technical Assistance and Training Center on Disability Inclusion and Emergency Preparedness. Does this work? Sue

Sue Wolf-Fordham, JD, MPA is a Senior Pro... READ MORE >

Image description: Emily Cheng, a smiling woman with medium-length black hair and a pair of glasses.  

Emily Cheng, MPH, is the Evaluation Project Specialist for the Act Early Response to COVID-19 project under AUCD's Public Health Team. She supports and conducts various aspects of evaluation activities for the project. 

Emily has experience working in both public and private sectors. She worked at the Mi... READ MORE >

Image Description: A young man with medium length brown hair, wearing a black and white striped polo shirt smiles for a photo on a rooftop. The sky is blue and he is surrounded by various buildings.

Kevin serves as the Policy Fellow and helps implement AUCD’s policy and advocacy priorities.  Kevin identifies as a gay man with mental health disabilities and is excited to bring his personal experience to this role. He will serve in this position from June 2022 until June 2023... READ MORE >

Cindy Smith serves as the Director of Public Policy for AUCD, working to formulate and implement AUCD's legislative and advocacy priorities and strategies.

Cindy began her career as a Research Study Coordinator and Database Manager at the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) in Boston. For the last 11 years, Cindy has worked in public policy and advocacy for the DD Act partners at the state or national levels. Most recently, she served as Deputy Director for Policy and P... READ MORE >

Talk to me about: Tuesdays with Liz, Self Advocacy, Plain Language, Public Speaking, Public Policy, Mentorship

Image Description: A white woman with black hair and glasses wearing a white turtleneck with a blue sweater.

Liz Weintraub has a long history of leadership in self advocacy, and has held many board and advisory positions at state and national organizations. She is a full time member of the AUCD's policy team and also the host of Tuesdays With Liz: Disability Policy For All, where she a... READ MORE >

Talk to me about: Public Policy, Advocacy, Victims of Crime/Abuse & Neglect

Image Description: Denise, a white woman with short reddish hair, wears red rectangular glasses and smiles at the camera. Denise wears a black and red flowered jacket against a black background.

Denise Rozell, JD, is the Director of Policy Innovation at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). Denise works primarily on issues affecting youth in post-secondary education, employment and independent living including as the co-Director for the PROMISE Technical Assist... READ MORE >

Image Description: Image of smiling woman with short brown hair wearing a black and white suit jacket, nose ring and earrings.

Michele Lunsford is the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities where she leads the organization's communications, development and events-planning work. Utilizing more than a decade of experience in non-profit communications, Michele works to ele... READ MORE >

Joanne Coley is the Communications Coordinator at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. She will support AUCD's communications and marketing activities, manage the organization's social media efforts, and provide event-planning support.

Joanne has a wealth of communications experience and has provided communications support for several years within non-profits, education, and municipalities. She also has experience working within the disability community as she used t... READ MORE >

Talk to me about: Information Dissemination, Community Outreach, Design, Accessibility and Marketing

Image Description: Headshot photo of Anna Costalas, a smiling olive skinned queer with short greyish black hair and brown eyes, wearing tortoise glasses and a button down shirt with a bookcase in the background.

Anna Costalas, MPA, serves as the Digital Marketing and Communications Manager at AUCD. Anna manages and provides leadership in AUCD’s digital communications and marketing activities, including live and recorded webinars, in-person meetings and other ev... READ MORE >

Talk to me about: Web Technologies/Internet Services, NIRS and LPQI Technical Questions, Web Application Development

Image Descriptions: White woman with black blazer is facing the camera head on. She has brown long hair and is smiling.

Oksana Klimova, MS, is the Director of Web Services at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). Oksana directs and oversees all aspects of AUCD's web systems in support of the association and network's strategic goals and priorities. She is responsible for creative design and development, from conception of prototype concepts through final progra... READ MORE >

Image Description: Photo of Elizabeth (Liz) Schneider (she/her/hers), a smiling woman with brown hair in front of a light blue background.

Liz Schneider is the Association of University Centers on Disabilities' Executive Assistant. She provides executive and administrative support, is the AUCD Board Liaison, and provides support for Accessibility at AUCD.

Liz has been providing executive and administrative support for several years at nonprofit organizations and universities, ... READ MORE >

Image Description: Photo of E. Troy Washington, a man wearing a gray blazer and a light blue shirt.

E. Troy Washington is the Senior Director of Finance and Grants Administration at AUCD. Troy has over thirty years of accounting and grants experience. He has vast accounting experience leading financial operations for several organizations. His accounting experience includes financial statements and reporting, cash management, financial analysis, month and year-end closings, and audit ... READ MORE >