Rachel Pilling - Rachel has been a consultant pediatric ophthalmologist in the UK since 2010 and was appointed as Professor of Special Needs and Learning Disability Eye Care by the University of Bradford in 2020. She has published guidance on eye care for learning disability for national organizations and developed quality standards for eye departments. Most recently, her work has focused on special school visual assessment, tools for assessing visual function in children with complex needs (the ViBe Matrix). Rachel has a passion for ‘making it easier’ – easier to understand Cerebral Visual Impairment, easier to diagnose, easier to offer support to children and families, and most of all, making it easier to see. She has worked with NHS England and partners to establish a national Special School Eye Care Service for children with special needs, and has recently led a team in producing national guidelines for the role of the eye clinic in assessment of a child with suspect CVI. Her current research interests are in identifying atypical visual behaviors as early indicators of neurodiversity and autism, and development of school-based tools to support visual learning.
Andrea Montaño - Andrea Montaño is an early interventionist in New Mexico. She began her work as an OT in 1998 and then completed a master’s degree in special education with an emphasis in visual impairments after being hired in 2006 by the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In addition to home-based service provision, she has worked in the hospital setting and inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. Andrea is an Instructional Lead at NMSBVI, providing mentorship and facilitating group learning circles and reflective supervision. She has collaborated with leaders in the field of visual impairments to offer numerous trainings at national and international conferences. She is passionate about helping families and other professionals learn about CVI.
Dr. Rain Bosworth - Dr. Rain Bosworth is an associate professor in Department of Liberal Studies at RIT/NTID. She is a deaf experimental psychologist, studying development of perception and language in infants and children at the newly-founded Perception, Language and Attention in Youth (PLAY) Lab. For her doctoral degree at the University of California, San Diego, she studied visual motion processing and attention in deaf adults, to better understand how deafness and sign language experience impact perceptual abilities. She is currently investigating visual and tactile exploratory behaviors in infants, children and adults to address questions about how we learn and process sign language. She has also studied how easily visual abilities are recovered in children who were treated for congenital eye disorders. Together, these lines of research reveal how early sensory input shapes perception, cognition, and language processing. Dr. Bosworth teaches Intro to Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Biopsychology, and Research Methods.
Jaclyn “Jac” Tyrcha is the Director of Outreach at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind and serves on the Colorado EHDI Steering Committee. With over a decade of experience in Deaf education, she is a passionate advocate for language access, learning, and inclusive family engagement. Jaclyn also works as an animal communicator and, in her free time, enjoys adventuring with her husband, Bucky, and their tripod kitty, Beam. They love hiking, camping, board games, traveling, and spending time with loved ones. Jac can’t wait to interact with you!
Ashley Norkus is a dedicated professional specializing in communication strategies for children with sensory impairments, particularly those who are deafblind. With extensive experience in education of the deaf and hard of hearing and early intervention, Ashley has worked closely with children, families, and educators to develop effective tactile communication techniques that foster meaningful connections. Ashley holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s Degree in Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Drawing from personal experience as a Deafblind individual, Ashley brings a unique and deeply informed perspective to this work. Diagnosed with Usher Syndrome, she has bilateral cochlear implants, experiences blindness, and navigates daily life with a Seeing Eye Dog.
Linda Alsop - is the Director of Deafblind Programs at the SKI-HI Institute/Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. She has extensive experience working directly with children with deafblindness and their families. She has developed numerous curricula, training materials, and resources that are being used by families, professionals, and interveners throughout the country. She developed and implemented the first online higher education Intervener Training Program in the U. S. and has trained hundreds of interveners to work with children and youth who are deafblind around the country. She is actively involved in national efforts to establish interveners as related service providers under IDEA. She is the Co-Director of the National Intervener and Advocacy Association.
Beth Jones - lives in Henderson, Nevada with her amazing husband Josh and their three wonderful teenagers Alexis, Coleman, and Harrison. Before becoming a mother, Beth earned a Bachelor's degree in Special Education and a Master's degree in Special Education, working for many years as a teacher of students with Autism and a Behavior Mentor Teacher. Her oldest and youngest children were diagnosed at early ages as being deaf/hard of hearing and has worked diligently ever since to educate herself to be able to support her own children in their needs, as well supporting others throughout Nevada. Beth has been involved with Nevada Hands & Voices since 2013, starting out as "just a mom" and then quickly moving into a Parent Guide position. She has served as the Guide By Your Side Program Coordinator since 2016 and became Executive Director in 2020. Beth also sits on the Nevada EHDI Stakeholder and the Legislative sub-committee for the Nevada Commission for Persons who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Speech Impaired. Beth is a graduate of Partners in Policymaking, a member of the Fostering Joy Core Team, and has been a Mentor for the Hands & Voices Leadership-to-Leadership Program.
Kitty Edstrand - Kitty Edstrand is currently the Innovation, Development, and Research Coordinator for NMSBVI. She’s been in NM for 9 years, where she continues to conduct research in and out of the classroom, support staff, and teach O&M courses for NM State University. Previously, she taught preschool at NMSBVI and has been working as a TSVI or O&M in the visual impairment field for almost 20 years, primarily working with young children with visual impairments. She received her doctorate from FSU as an NLCSD fellow. Instructional and research interests have focused on pretend play, the LMA process, understanding CVI, instructional strategies and ECC in early childhood, and O&M.
Maurice Belote - Maurice Belote's 42-year career in the deafblind field includes experience as a home/hospital teacher, a classroom teacher, and a state deafblind project coordinator. He is currently adjunct faculty with three university training programs in deafblindness and also serves as Co-Chair of the National DeafBlind Coalition, which advocates for federal legislation and policies that promote equity for DeafBlind children and youth. He is a frequent speaker at national and international meetings and, in 2021, was awarded the Anne Sullivan Medal for his contributions to the field of deafblindness.
Tanni Anthony, Ph.D. - Dr. Tanni Anthony is a TVI and an O&M Specialist who specializes in young children who are blind, low vision, or deaf-blind. She is a author and frequent presenter on early development. She is currently the state consultant on blindness/low vision for the Colorado Department of Education and the Co-Project Director of the Colorado Deaf-Blind Project.
Aaron Shield - Aaron Shield is an Associate Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Miami University of Ohio. He holds a doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and completed postdoctoral training in Psychology at the University of Chicago and Boston University. He has been investigating the linguistic and cognitive development of deaf children on the autism spectrum since 2007 and has published over 20 scientific research papers on the topic. He is also Associate Editor of the journal Autism and Developmental Language Impairments.
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Jessica Chandler - Jessica Chandler is a Teacher of Blind/ Low Vision Learners and Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist. She is the current Associate Director of Outreach, Birth to Five at the Washington State School for the Blind and the Washington State Coordinator of Early Supports for Infants and Toddlers who are Blind or have Low Vision (B/LV) where she is fortunate to companion families during the earliest stages of their journey to empower and support their B/LV children.
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Luanne Stordahl - Luanne Stordahl is the Program Coordinator for the B-3 Program at the New Mexico School for the Blind & Visually Impaired. She has worked in the field of early intervention for 25 years, the past 17 years at NMSBVI. She is passionate about providing family-centered care and helping to create environments that provide opportunities for children to actively engage in their learning. She has three grown children who have been her best teachers and loves to spend time hiking with her family in beautiful New Mexico.
Katie Lane-Karnas - Katie Lane-Karnas is the primary homeschooling parent with her two teens, ages 13 and 15, in rural Vermont. Since 2021 she has been facilitating her CVIer’s learning in braille, Nemeth code, access tech, O&M, and the expanded core curriculum. Katie authored a paper on her family’s learnings, “A Case Study on CVI, Reading, and Braille,” published by the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. Katie co-presented on the parent perspective in CVI with Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute at the 2024 AER International Conference and is a member of the National Eye Institute’s CVI Expert Registry Panel.
Mae Lane-Karnas - Mae Lane-Karnas (they/them) is a teenager who loves Braille, math, and art. Mae has a host of visual challenges under the umbrella of cerebral visual impairment (CVI) that cause them to function at the level of legal blindness, although their acuities are typical. Mae co-organizes an ongoing CVI discussion group at Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute and serves on the National Eye Institute’s CVI Expert Registry Panel. Mae is a board member of the National Federation of the Blind of Vermont and has co-presented nationally to clinicians, scientists, inventors, educators, and medical students about their lived experience of CVI and the importance of non-visual access for all blind students, including CVIers.
Michella Basas, Ph.D. - Michella Basas, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Flagler College in Saint Augustine, FL. While her professional practice and expertise is grounded in the bilingual/bicultural model, Dr. Basas understands the importance of supporting the diversity within the D/deaf communities and believes it is critical that teacher preparation programs provide philosophical balance to the greatest degree possible. In order to move forward in the field, Basas believes that we must find the common threads that connect families, deaf individuals, and professionals across all modality preferences and philosophical approaches. Dr. Basas has dedicated her study and service to strengthening the research-to-practice pipeline while building philosophical and collaborative bridges in deaf education and strives to foster these ideals in the pre-service teachers she encounters in her courses at Flagler College. She currently lives on a small family farm with her husband, a VERY energetic little human, and a menagerie of wonderful little creatures.
