Nisonger Institute 2024
When: June 7, 2024 8:30-12:00PM ET
Where: Zoom
Title: “We’ll Take Another Look in Six Months”: Strategies for Supporting Black Families Raising Young Autistic Children
Abstract:
In this presentation, Dr. Jamie Pearson will highlight the barriers that Black autistic children face during the early childhood years and describe the impact of these disparities on child and family outcomes. She will describe how FACES–(Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Support)–a family centered empowerment intervention, aims to strengthen Black families’ knowledge of autism, capacity to advocate, and collaborative partnerships with professionals. Finally, Dr. Pearson will discuss strategies that educators and clinicians can adopt to address disparities in early intervention and facilitate culturally responsive partnerships with Black autistic children and their families.
Keynote Speaker
Jamie Pearson, PhD
Dr. Jamie Pearson, a former behavioral interventionist and autism program consultant, is an Associate Professor of Special Education and Educational Equity at North Carolina State University. Dr. Pearson earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she developed FACES (Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Support), an advocacy intervention for Black families raising autistic children. Dr. Pearson’s research focuses on: (a) disparities in autism identification, service access, and service utilization, (b) the impact of parent-advocacy and empowerment training on child and family outcomes, and (c) strategies to promote positive parent-professional partnerships between educators and historically marginalized communities. Dr. Pearson’s FACES intervention is funded by a 2021 Early Career Development and Mentoring Grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (R324B210003). Dr. Pearson has published her work in several peer-reviewed journals in the fields of inclusive/special education and racial and ethnic disparities.
Panelists
Jamie Pearson, PhD
Dr. Jamie Pearson, a former behavioral interventionist and autism program consultant, is an Associate Professor of Special Education and Educational Equity at North Carolina State University. Dr. Pearson earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she developed FACES (Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Support), an advocacy intervention for Black families raising autistic children. Dr. Pearson’s research focuses on: (a) disparities in autism identification, service access, and service utilization, (b) the impact of parent-advocacy and empowerment training on child and family outcomes, and (c) strategies to promote positive parent-professional partnerships between educators and historically marginalized communities. Dr. Pearson’s FACES intervention is funded by a 2021 Early Career Development and Mentoring Grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (R324B210003). Dr. Pearson has published her work in several peer-reviewed journals in the fields of inclusive/special education and racial and ethnic disparities.
Katie Walton, PhD
Katherine Walton, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Health at The Ohio State University. She is also the Director of the Nisonger Early Learning Program, which provides early education and early intervention services to young children with and without disabilities. Dr. Walton’s research and clinical interests focus on understanding, assessing, and improving early social communication skills in children with autism. She is also interested in supporting and understanding the experiences of family members of children with autism. Throughout her work, Dr. Walton focuses on integration of stakeholder perspectives and experiences, including actively involving autistic stakeholders and parents as research collaborators.
Meredith Mendoza-Gillotte
Meredith is a committed advocate for families in the disability community across Ohio. Prior to joining the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, Meredith had the opportunity to collaborate with and work for organizations across many disciplines related to the disability industry in Ohio over the past 15 years.
Meredith is proud to be one of the bilingual Ambassadors for Charting the Life Course in Ohio. She is a graduate of the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission – Latina Mentoring Academy and United Way of Central Ohio’s Project Diversity Pride Leadership. Additionally, Meredith brings a personal lens to her work. Raising two young adults diagnosed with autism and other conditions, she recognizes the value of providing resources to families at any stage can lead to successful futures.
Domonique Hillmon, MSW, LSW
Domonique graduated in 2015 from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in behavioral neuroscience. She graduated in 2017 from The Ohio State University with a Master’s degree in Social Work with a focus on mental health, obtaining an Ohio license in social work in 2018. As a clinician she has provided community outpatient counseling with school age children concentrating on social emotional regulation and mental health, as well as providing mental health and daily living supports for individuals with developmental disabilities. Her expertise includes social emotional development, mental health, and trauma informed care supports. Domonique enjoys working with children and their families and believes that by providing assistance to form healthy relationships, boundaries, and consistency in messaging between all involved in the child’s life, the child as well as the family will thrive.
Tracey Manz
Tracey Manz serves as the Project Manager for the Family Resource Network of Ohio and the Nisonger Aspirations program. She is a Charting the LifeCourse Ambassador and provides training on its framework and principles throughout the state. As a parent of an adult on the autism spectrum, Tracey has developed a passion for helping individuals with IDD and DD to self-advocate, work towards independence, and maximize their full potential. Through her work with Nisonger Aspirations, Tracey has established a network of professionals who specialize in assisting parents and caregivers of those with special needs by providing education and necessary resources. She previously held the position of 2019-2020 LEND Family Trainee.
With the support received from the US Maternal & Child Health Bureau Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) grant # T73MC24481 to The Ohio State University Nisonger Center (Dr. Andrea Witwer, PI), we can offer this webinar free-of-charge to all attendees.
The Nisonger Institute is an annual conference with a focus on research-to-practice activity. It had always been an in-person event prior to the COVID pandemic. Since, we have hosted the Nisonger Institute as a virtual webinar – providing more flexibility to our speakers and attendees, although, we do not preclude returning to an in-person format in the future.
The Nisonger Institute is an opportunity for professionals from different disciplines, direct support professionals, parents, siblings, individuals with lived DD experience, and other stakeholders to come together to share research, clinical, educational, and other relevant information related to a topic of concern for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. At the Nisogner Institute, we strive to provide an opportunity for all who attend to learn about current scientific knowledge and know-how and to provide examples of best practices around the country and right here in Ohio.
For more than 55 years, the Nisonger Center, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, has provided services and supports, community engagement, education/training, and research in the area of intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and related neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan. Now in its 13th year, the Nisonger Institute strives to bring together nationally prominent translational researchers, practitioners, and community advocates to share and exchange with the goal of improving services/supports and the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families.
Prior Nisonger Institute Events: