Each year, the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD, Iowa’s UCEDD) names recent graduates of the Iowa LEND program as recipients of the Alfred Healy Leadership Award in Developmental Disabilities. The Alfred Healy Leadership Award seeks to nurture in its recipients a life-long commitment to leadership in developmental disabilities to carry on Dr. Alfred Healy’s legacy for future generations. Dr. Healy was a world-renowned pediatrician and educator who devoted his life to caring for children with developmental disabilities. He served as the director of Iowa’s UCEDD from 1977 until he retired in 1998.
Recipients of the 2024 Healy Award were celebrated at a luncheon at CDD in early May. Ashley Augustine, MSW, and Rohit Nair, BDS, MDS, had recently completed their year of training in the Iowa LEND program and shared their research in the annual LEND Research Poster Symposium. At the luncheon, CDD leaders Karen Hammar, Derrick Willis, Dianne McBrien and Caitlin Owens were joined by the former director of Iowa’s UCEDD, Bob Bacon, to pay tribute to the late Dr. Healy, and celebrate Augustine and Dr. Nair. And for the first time since Covid, Dr. Healy’s family was able to join the celebration. His son Andy, and his grandson, Liam, attended the luncheon.
For Ashley Augustine, her preparation as an MSW candidate, and LEND training and experience, taught her that family-centered care is essential for better outcomes for patients and families. She learned that recognizing them as partners and incorporating their perspectives, values, preferences into care plans could help them navigate systems of care and overcome barriers, and ensure that interventions are more tailored and effective. With funding from the Healy Award, Augustine plans to build on the leadership skills she developed through participation in LEND and her MSW program, with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and mental health. She will enroll in the University of Iowa’s 2024 Summer BUILD Cohort, and become a certified trainer for Mental Health First Aid to serve her future practice as a social worker, and to positively impact her community.
After completing his dental school career in India, Dr. Rohit Nair made a commitment to providing care to geriatric and special needs populations by completing a one-year fellowship at the University of Iowa. At Iowa, he found one of only a few programs in the country that focuses on geriatric and special needs dental care. Following the fellowship, Dr. Nair stayed on in an academic position at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry in the Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry. He will use funding from the Healy Award to build on the research he began during his LEND training, exploring provider attitudes toward, and family and patient perspectives on, transitioning dental care for adolescents with special health care needs. He plans to develop content related to oral health and disability across the lifespan for continuing education programs.
Augustine participated in a LEND group research project, “Mental Health Disparities in Rural Communities,” with Marisa Ascencio (Medicine/Psychiatry) and Mary Howk (Audiology). Link to their research poster: https://ucedd.uihc.org/sites/uihc.org.ucedd/files/ascencio_et_al_final_poster.pdf
Dr. Nair’s LEND research project was “Pediatric and General Dentist Attitudes toward Transitioning Care for Adolescents with Special Health Care Needs.”
Link to Dr. Nair’s research poster: https://ucedd.uihc.org/sites/uihc.org.ucedd/files/nairv3.pdf
For more information about Iowa’s LEND program, or the Alfred Healy Leadership Award in Developmental Disabilities, get in touch with Meredith Field at [email protected].
