AUCD 2024 Conference
November 3-6 | Washington, D.C.
November 3-6 | Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
7:15 am - 8:15 am
In this session, we present to you the highlights of AUCD’s 2025 – 2028 Strategic Plan. We will use this opportunity to discuss and share out our experiences during this journey. Pulling ‘back the curtain’ we provide a behind-the-scenes perspective into the overall process that went into assembling the Plan. We will also underscore the value-add of obtaining direct input and feedback provided by the Network throughout the course of nearly 1.5 years that shaped robust ongoing discussion concerning our collective mission, vision, goals and objectives, and value statements. We hope you can join us for this unique experience to listen, share your reflections and ask questions about the creation and next steps for the Strategic Plan, that we hope will “Amplify and advance the work of the AUCD network to promote community inclusion and quality of life for people with developmental and other disabilities and their families.” We will offer this identical session on Monday Nov 4, and on Tuesday Nov 5 to maximize options to attend.
Dr. Rodney Samaco is the Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). With over 20 years of experience in academic research focused on rare genetic intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities, Rodney leverages his strategic perspectives, domain expertise, and extensive track record of securing funding and resources to strengthen ongoing AUCD Network endeavors, build team science initiatives, and drive the success of new business development, partnerships, and collaborations across diverse groups, disciplines and sectors.
Prior to joining AUCD, Rodney was the Co-Director (MPI) of the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), one of 16 nationally recognized IDDRC's funded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development. He also established and directed a scientific research laboratory in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. Here, he pioneered a framework for research readiness in the preclinical development of potentially transformative medicines for rare genetic, clinically severe neurodevelopmental disabilities.
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 director, he was appointed as director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. NIDILRR is the federal government's premier applied research agency impacting individuals with disabilities.
Prior to joining NIDILRR in 2014, he served as director of public policy and innovation at Allina Health in Minnesota, where he helped integrate medical and community-based services for people with disabilities. At the Courage Center, Minnesota's leading nonprofit provider of rehabilitation services, Mr. Tschida was vice president of public affairs and research. There, he built and directed a public policy and research team that focused on defining and achieving better outcomes for people with disabilities. He also led a statewide, cross-disability legislative coalition of more than 100 provider and advocacy organizations.
Dr. Salas has been the PR-UCEDD Director since November 2015, and before that, she was the Associate Director for nearly three years. A Doctor in Clinical Psychology and previously a PR/UCEDD trainee, she graduated from the National Disability Leadership Institute. She represents the PR/UCEDD in the Multicultural Council and on AIDDs National Diversity Advisory Committee. Currently, she is faculty of the Graduate School of Public Health of the Medical Sciences Campus of the UPR. She is also an appointed member on the PR P&A office board and member of the PR-DD Council, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. Locally Dr. Salas is an active member in diverse Advisory Councils and boards of nonprofit organizations for the Protection, Advocacy, and independent living movement for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, and violence against women.
As UCEDD Director, she consults with special projects with two LEND programs to coordinate intercultural learning experiences for their LEND trainees.
Derrick K. Willis, MPA, in 2019 assumed the leadership of Iowa’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD) within University of Iowa Health Care. For the past year, he has served as the interim director. Willis has been instrumental in helping lead and support the UCEDD’s work in reaching under-served populations. He has played a key role in their diversity efforts and helping to lead their Money Follows the Person work as the associate director for the Iowa UCEDD.
Prior to joining CDD, Willis served as director of urban mission at the Institute for Human Development, Missouri’s UCEDD, at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Willis’s background includes 32 years’ experience working at local not-for-profits, state government, and higher education. Most of his career has centered on working with youth and families from diverse backgrounds living in urban communities. He brings experience in mental health, substance and alcohol abuse treatment and prevention, violence prevention, education transition, employment, and cultural competency.
Ilka Riddle, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics/Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. She is also the incoming AUCD Board President and the AUCD 2024 Conference Chair. Dr. Riddle received her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Delaware, with a focus on illness and disability and its impact on families. She is also a proud graduate of the 2013 Summer UCEDD Leadership Institute of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Riddle spent her graduate-level training years and early career years at the Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS) at the University of Delaware before moving to the UCEDD at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio as Associate Director and since 2013, as the Director.
