Occupational therapy student and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) UCEDD trainee Noelle Vidak became curious about access to sexual health resources for youth with disabilities during her coursework studying sex for those with physical injury, like spinal cord injury. While completing her fieldwork rotation in an outpatient setting, she discovered that parents and primary caregivers of children with I/DD approaching puberty were worried about navigating menses.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND)’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) and the Vanderbilt Consortium LEND Training Program have once again worked together to produce two brand-new toolkits and online courses.

Bruktawit Zewdie (MN LEND 2022-23) is helping a teleoutreach center learn the experiences of families of children on the autism spectrum who have been waitlisted for evaluation or intervention.

On Monday, April 22, 2024, UArizona Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities trainees had the opportunity to share their accomplishments at the annual Trainee Symposium. Colleagues, friends, and Sonoran Center staff were in attendance as over 20 trainees presented their work. This year’s cohort included students from the Undergraduate Certificate in Developmental Disabilities, the Disability Policy Fellowship, the Diversity Fellowship, and the Interdisciplinary Approach to Disability Internship.

LEND trainees, faculty, and guests recently gathered at The Ohio State University Medical Center to celebrate the work of LEND trainees from Cincinnati Children’s and The Ohio State University Nisonger Center. The LEND posters showcased a range of projects addressing several themes such as community resources, accessibility, inclusion, dental services, mental health, and sensory processing in children with prenatal opioid exposure.

In this episode, meet Sharon Williams, LEND Class of 2019-2020. Sharon was a LEND trainee from the US Virgin Islands. She lives on the island of St. Croix with her husband and daughter Sharon joined the Virgin Islands UCEDD (University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities) in 2012 and is the Assistant Director of Assistive Technology.

Accessing and navigating services for children with developmental, emotional, or behavioral health (D/E/B) concerns has greater complexity for military families, geographically-dispersed families, and families who are highly mobile or lack providers near their homes. University of Minnesota's Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB) has received $3.5 million to lower these barriers as a partner in the Department of Defense Child Collaboration Study "A Research Collaboratory to Explore Best Practices for Expanding Access to Care Through Expansion and Support of Telehealth Care for Children and Families with Behavioral Health Needs."

The AUCD Leadership Academy is a week-long intensive experience, paired with a year of pre and post interactions designed to enhance the skills of current and emerging leaders from disability networks to build coalitions to improve systems of supports and services. The Leadership Academy engages participants from UCEDDs, LENDs, and the wider community of disability partners to come together to immerse themselves for a week of study, shared experiences, self-evaluation, and skill development.

AUCD is happy to announce that during this year's AUCD Conference: "Emerging Leader Shaping The Future."The network's newest special interest group(SIG), the Migration and Disability SIG, held its inaugural meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 7th. Convened and chaired by Eva Weiss of Temple University, the group aims to address a gap in knowledge and expertise at the crossroads of migration and disability.

AUCD is offering scholarships to support LEND audiology trainees in attending the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Annual Conference on March 17-19, 2024. All current LEND audiology trainees, including those in their externship year, are eligible to apply.