Her Calling: Helping Families
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
As she finishes her doctorate in occupational therapy at the University of Minnesota over the next few months, Bruktawit Zewdie (MNLEND 2022-23) is reaching back to her time as a MNLEND fellow at the Institute on Community Integration to help set the course for her future.
During her fellowship, Zewdie became interested in the work of the TeleOutreach Center at the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain. The center supports researchers in using telecom technology to increase participation in clinical research. For her MNLEND project, she created a one-page flyer for parents with resources and information about autism, working with ICI’s Jessica Simacek, director of the TeleOutreach Center.
Now, she’s working with Simacek again. For her doctorate capstone project, she is helping the team learn more about the experiences of families of children on the autism spectrum who have been waitlisted for evaluation or intervention. The work is intended to expand on the three-year Maternal & Child Health Bureau’s Autism Field-Initiated Innovative Research Studies (Autism-FIRST) Program, which is set to conclude this year. Led by Simacek, with co-principal investigators Adele Dimian and Amy Esler, it is a randomized control trial of a remote evaluation and intervention package for waitlisted families.
