Katy Washington, Affiliate Liaison BOD
Carey Busch, Lead Affiliate Representative
This is a busy time of year for the affiliates as they sponsor Spring professional development opportunities for members, complete reauthorization paperwork, and keep their members connected to AHEAD. Carey and I are busy preparing for the Spring Affiliate call as well as the affiliate booth and breakfast for the affiliate representatives attending the AHEAD conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The affiliates’ work on the state and regional levels is vital to the overall success of the AHEAD organization. Below you will find some examples of awesome work affiliates are doing and the opportunities they are providing for members.
CAPED (California Association for Postsecondary Education and Disability) is hosting a “Spring Drive-In Training” on April 20th at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. Speakers and presenters include Zachary Pelchat, Supervising Attorney from the Office of Civil Rights to discuss OCR complaints; Paul Grossman, Attorney and Board of Directors for AHEAD, to discuss Legal Insights into Three Emerging Issues; Catherine Campisi, previous Director of Department of Rehabilitation, and Rachel Stewart, Coordinator of WorkAbility III at Sacramento City College, to present New Concepts of Disability and Strategies for Implementation; Tom Thompson, previous interim director of Disability Center at CSU Fullerton and director of TMLS Consulting, to present on Responding to Challenges in DRS work; Stacey Shears, Director DSPS at De Anza College and Lucinda Aborn, Director DSPS at Cerritos College, to discuss recent assistive technology audits of the community colleges; Gaeir Dietrich to discuss updates of Assistive Technology and provide a tour of the High Tech Training Center. Registration can be found at http://www.caped.io
Colorado Wyoming AHEAD will be hosted its 2018 spring conference at the University of Colorado Boulder on April 5th and April 6th. The conference featured two plenary speakers. Dr. Clayton Lewis discussed the advances in communication and computing technology that have made it easier for people with a wide range of capabilities to access information and services online, including education. Dr. Patty Witkowsky shared information on disability identity development models and their connection to traditional psychosocial, cognitive, and multidimensional identity development models for Generation Z. To see the full schedule, please visit https://tinyurl.com/sp18schedule. To contact Colorado Wyoming AHEAD contact Chair, Jill Sieben-Schneider, at jill.schneider@colorado.edu.
The Illinois-Iowa AHEAD board hosted its 2018 biennial conference themed “Beyond Accommodations: Designing the Playing Field for Diverse Learners” for approximately 81 participants March 22-23 in the beautiful city of Peoria, IL. Thanks to our presenters, the workshops and concurrent sessions were not only diverse but excellent! Some of the topics included ESAs & Service Animals, Universal Design, Assistive Tech Solutions, Doing More with Less, Military Service Needs, and Providing Support for Students with Autism. Conference attendees were fortunate to have three dynamic plenary speakers! Dr. Amanda Kraus who serves as the Director of the Disability Resource Center at the University of Arizona presented on disability stereotypes and microaggressions. Dr. Jason Woods who serves as the Associate Vice President for Student Services at Western Illinois University presented on leadership development. Dan Altschul from OCR gave an OCR annual review. Elections will be held in April to fill upcoming vacant board positions.
Michigan AHEAD will offer a 2018 Spring Pre-Conference and Conference on May 31 and June 1, 2018 at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI. Keynote Speaker with be Tim Cusack. Pre-Conference Speaker will be Robin Jones from the Great Lakes ADA Center. Board elections will take place at the conference. We will honor two members with the Marge Award and the Alumni Award as well at our upcoming conference. Michigan's membership continues to grow, monthly meetings continue to be attended by more than 30 members, and our list-serve remains active! For more information, visit the Michigan AHEAD Website at www.mi-ahead.org
MNAHEAD and WIAHEAD joined together for a spring conference in La Crosse, WI on April 5th and 6th at Western Technical College. MNAHEAD continued it collaboration with the Minnesota Business Leadership Network (MNBLN) in promoting the MNBLN mentoring program. Currently, 15 students from across the state are working with MNBLN mentors on enhancing their career and employment plans. MNAHEAD also in continuing its collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education to promote more active use of assistive technology on the K12 level. MNAHEAD is also providing expertise to a working group in Rochester MN, headed by the Mayo Clinic to promote the development of Rochester as a center of excellence for the development of assistive technology- stay tuned. For more information, please contact Tom Lynch at: tlynch@nhcc.edu
On March 28, Ohio AHEAD co-sponsored the 2018 ADA Cafe with AHEAD. Once again L. Scott Lissner, of the Ohio State University, answered Higher Ed. related ADA topics. If you’d like to purchase a recording, please visit https://www.ahead.org/events-programming/webinars/ada-cafe. On May 22nd Ohio AHEAD will be hosting a webinar for Accessibility in on-line classes. Dr. Lei iSong of the University of Toledo will be the presenter. Registration details will be posted on the Ohio AHEAD Website soon: www.ohioahead.org. Ohio AHEAD will be holding its annual fall conference on Friday, October 19th at Terra State Community College in Fremont, Ohio. The theme for this year's conference is Building Bridges...Moving AHEAD. We are currently seeking concurrent session proposals, which can be found at: https://ohahead.wufoo.com/forms/mj51k8d1g63ge7/
AHEAD in VA held its two-day annual spring meeting in Staunton, VA on March 15th and 16th. Michelle Rigler and Amy Rutherford from UTC presented information and strategies for working with students on the autism spectrum on March 15th. Members Chelsea Russell, (Preparing Teams to Support Students with ASD), Sally Scott (What Is a Reasonable Caseload), Mimi Getachew (How To Create an Office That Is Truly Accessible), and Christina Wulf and Brennan Maupin (Helping Faculty Become Universal Designers) presented on March 16th as well as Judith Risch from OCR. In addition, we had Thursday night entertainment from the Storyweavers who are a Virginia-based band that features a sign-language interpreter as a member of the band.