CT LEND is excited to welcome guest speakers, Melissa Taylor, Anton Alerte, MD, and Rob Keder, MD, on Friday, October 24, 2025.

Melissa Taylor is a former LEND trainee and self-advocate who shares her experiences as a person with developmental disabilities. Melissa graduated from the Partners in Policymaking program in 2018 and has served on many state boards and regularly attends disability justice events.

Anton Alerte, MD, is a Professor in Pediatrics at UConn School of Medicine and the Associate Dean for Primary Care at UConn School of Medicine. Dr. Alerte’s presentation will focus on race and disability.

Rob Keder, MD, is an Associate Professor in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Dr. Keder’s presentation will focus on autism

Connecticut LEND is excited to welcome many special guests on Friday, October 17, 2025.

Bethanne Vergean is a Learn the Signs, Act Early Ambassador and Research Associate at the UConn UCEDD. Bethanne has been working in the early childhood field for over 20 years, and has a wealth of expertise on pediatrics, early intervention, public health, and mental health. In 2019, Bethanne was selected to be the Connecticut Learn the Signs, Act Early Ambassador by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Bethanne’s presentation on Friday will focus on Learn the Signs, Act Early, the CDC’s screening initiative to improve early identification of children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Molly Cole, Walt Glomb, and Tobey Partch-Davies, PhD, will be speaking to trainees about the Developmental Disabilities Network. Molly Cole is the Executive Director of the CT State Independent Living Council, Walt Glomb is the Executive Director of the CT Council on Developmental Disabilities, and Tobey Partch-Davies, PhD, is the Executive Director of Disability Rights Connecticut.

Joe Tucker, MD is an Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. His presentation will present information on genetics and neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Samantha Wesoly, MS is the Associate Program Director for Genetic Counseling at the Institute for Systems Genomics at the University of Connecticut. Samantha’s presentation will provide a discipline perspective of genetic counseling and will supply trainees with information on the characteristics and the role of the geneticist and the genetic counselor.

We can’t wait for our 2025-2026 LEND trainees to learn about public health and neonatology from these two passionate guest speakers!

Connecticut LEND is excited to welcome David Bateman, PhD on Friday, September 26, 2025. David is a principal researcher at American Institutes for Research (AIR) and co-principal investigator of LEAD-IDEA, the OSEP funded training center focusing on principals and special education. He is a former professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania in the Department of Educational Leadership and Special Education, where he taught courses on special education law, assessment, and IEP implementation/development. David draws from his experience as a former due process hearing officer and uses his knowledge of litigation related to special education to assist school districts in providing supports for students with disabilities. David also has past experience teaching students with disabilities and has co-authored several books. We are ecstatic about his visit to CT!

LEND and can’t wait for our 2025-2026 trainees to learn more about IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) from his presentation!

Connecticut LEND is thrilled to welcome Ann Turnbull on Friday, September 26, 2025. Ann and her late husband, H. Rutherford “Rud,” have been presenting to CT LEND trainees for many years. Ann is the Marianna and Ross Beach Distinguished Professor Emerita in Special Education at the University of Kansas. She co-founded and co-directed the Beach Center on Disability, focusing her research on family support, family and professional collaboration, and community inclusion for people with disabilities. Ann has been a Principal Investigator on over 25 federally funded research and personnel development grants, and is a prolific writer, having co-authored many books, textbooks, articles, and chapters in the fields of special education and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Inspired by her son, Jay, who had autism and intellectual disabilities, Ann’s passion for the disability community is deeply personal. We are so excited to welcome back Ann for another LEND seminar to share her wisdom with our 2025-2026 trainees!

The Connecticut Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (CT LEND) is one of 60 LEND programs across the country that focuses on the training of future leaders from a wide variety of professional disciplines in order to improve the health care delivery system for children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The CT LEND provides training to graduate students from audiology, nursing, psychology, public health, school psychology, social work, special education, speech language and hearing science. Self-advocates, family members and community members also participate in one year of course work, community practicum assignments, advocacy and research. The training program requires the completion of coursework (9 credit hours), research studies, advocacy projects and community practicum assignments with infants, children and youth and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism, and their families, for over 700 hours a year.