Laura Walker Jackson, MPA

2006 Disability Policy Leadership Fellow

Laura Walker Jackson served at the 2006 AUCD Disability Policy Fellow. During her Fellowship, she developed the Orientation Curriculum for Consumer Advisory Committees under AUCD's contract with the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. 

Laura wrote about her Fellowship experience stating, "Over the past year as the Policy Fellow at AUCD, I have developed a good understanding of the complexity of the AUCD network, as well as how the work of the UCEDD and LEND programs intersect with federal agencies and Congress.  In addition to this, I have built relationships with key individuals in other national disability organizations and Congressional staff on the hill.  As a result I have a good understanding of how to more effectively impact systems that affect the lives of people with disabilities.  I have also honed in on strategies to positively impact legislation, funding and policies that directly affect our network."  Fore more on Laura's experience, read her full report.

 

Currently, Laura works in program development at the Institute for Human Development at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Since returning to the Missouri UCEDD, Laura was elected to be a national advisor for Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) due to her experience working with other national associations during her time at AUCD. She continues to work with the national self-advocacy movement through her work at the UCEDD. Laura currently coordinates the National Training Initiative on Scaling-up Self-Determination in the United States which is funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities.