Mental Health Crossroads

This week, executive director of the CPD and member of the MHDD team, interviews Mary Giliberti about mental health and policy. Make sure to check out the Mental Health America website for tons of great resources mentioned in this episode. Full transcripts are available in English and in Spanish below.   BIO: Mary Giliberti is the Executive Vice President of Policy at Mental Health America. Mary focuses on federal policy to promote prevention, early intervention, integration, and recovery. Prior to joining MHA in 2019, she was the Chief Executive Officer of The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She also has worked in the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Serves and as disability counsel to the United States Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee. After graduating from Yale Law School, she clerked for Judge Phyllis Kravitch on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and received a Skadden Fellowship to work at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.   Links:   English Transcript Spanish Transcript   MHA website MHDD website       *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

  Justin Olson is our guest this episode. He is a disability rights advocate from the Salt Lake City area of Utah. Justin was a founding member of the Becoming Leaders for Tomorrow a grant funded group of young adults created to educate pediatricians about how to better support individuals with developmental disabilities transition to adult medical providers. He is also a long-time staff member of the University of Utah’s (U of U) Best Buddies program and is involved with Best Buddies at the local, state, and national levels. Justin is also a proud fan of the U of U and Utah Jazz basketball teams. He attends games regularly and is one the most enthusiastic fans in the arena.   Jeff and Justin discuss his current involvement in the Best Buddies program, past projects he has worked on, and what he does to maintain his mental health. He talks about some of his experiences with hospitalization (and a full video of the panel discussion is linked below).   *The MHDD National Training Center would like to note that our conversation with Justin about staying positive and happy is not meant to suggest that depression and anxiety are not serious clinical health conditions that many people experience; we support appropriate therapy, medication, and activities for wellness as part of a comprehensive plan for managing mental health concerns, in addition to the ideas that Jeff and Justin discuss that are specific to Justin’s lived experience.     Links: MHDD National Training Center and past episodes https://mhddcenter.org/voices/ Link to transcript Panel Discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJVgU7aGUZw Psychology today service locator SAD lamps (and other recommendations for seasonal affective disorder) Apps Justin recommended for keeping in touch with friends: Marco Polo Google Duo   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Ariel Schwartz at Boston University. She tells us about her early engagement with the disability community. She discusses the importance of meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities in research, beyond the tokenism frequently present in academic research. Ariel discusses participatory action research and how she has implemented it in work with peer-mentoring, developing relationships with self-advocates and giving them space to actively steer research. We will be interviewing some of the self-advocates that work with Ariel in the coming months, so we can hear directly from them and their experiences in this process.     Guest bio:  Ariel Schwartz, PhD, OTR/L is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. She has worked with young adults with IDD for over 15 years. Ariel’s research is focused on figuring out how to best include people with IDD in the research process. Including young adults is called “inclusive research.” Ariel wants to learn the best way to do inclusive research, because she believes that people with IDD have a lot of knowledge and experience that can help make research more useful to people with disabilities. Ariel also studies peer mentoring and employment for young adults with IDD-MH.     Links:  Transcript of this episode   Our website: www.mhddcenter.org   Participatory action research (PAR) Website for PAR team: https://aaspire.org/  Inclusive research information from Australia: https://www.cadr.org.au/images/1759/inclmainrapidreview.pdf   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

This week we hear from Dr. Ty Aller, about mental health and how it intersects with disability, his work on college campuses, in therapy, and at the MHDD National Training Center. Some of the resources mentioned in this episode include:   The Happiness Trap 8-week program; https://thehappinesstrap.com/ The Happiness Trap, book https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/76053/the-happiness-trap-by-russ-harris-foreword-by-steven-hayes/ A Liberated Mind, book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48228223-a-liberated-mind-mr-exp ACT research and programs at USU: https://www.utahact.com/ Transcripts and past episodes of our podcast: https://mhddcenter.org/voices/ Transcript of this episode  Trainings: Trainings from the MHDD Center (use this page for current webinars and watch for updates for other trainings from our center): https://mhddcenter.org/training/ Digital storytelling: The MHDD center is collecting stories about lived experience (and is in the process of producing already collected stories from advocates). If you are an advocate, follow the link at the bottom of our voices page https://mhddcenter.org/voices/   Guest Bio: Dr. Ty Aller is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist that works as the Training Coordinator for the MHDD: NTC and is housed at Utah State University’s Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD), a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. Prior to joining the CPD, Ty worked as a therapist at a local non-profit organization serving victims of domestic violence and child abuse/neglect. He now owns and operates a private practice in Northern Utah. Ty’s research interests include measuring and implementing mental health literacy programming on college campuses, parent-child relationships and their influence on social-emotional development and projects related to direct service implementation. In his clinical work, Ty focuses on leveraging the strengths of family systems and incorporates components of Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Dialectal Behavior Therapy to help adolescents improve their well-being. *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

This week we hear from Dr. Verity Rodrigues, a specialist in mental health and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who is working towards a more accessible and inclusive mental health field. She talks to us about her work with children with ASD and their families, across school and clinical settings. Dr. Rodrigues works directly with educators across Tennessee to help them better understand the signs, symptoms, and opportunities to support individuals with ASD and co-occurring mental health concerns. She also works directly with children and families with disabilities and/or mental health concerns. In addition, Dr. Rodrigues is interested in developing manualized approaches to building and sustaining best-practice classrooms and supporting other system-wide changes to improve access to quality mental health care for individuals with developmental disabilities.   The links we mentioned in this week’s episode:   Transcript of this episode: Dr. Verity Rodrigues Transcript Transcripts and past episodes of our podcast: https://mhddcenter.org/voices/ TRIAD at Vanderbilt: https://triad.vkclearning.org/   Dr. Rodrigues received her master’s in special education and her doctorate in school psychology, both from the University of Oregon, where she focused on systems consultation and mental health in schools. As an educational consultant and psychologist at TRIAD, she works across TRIAD’s school-based professional development team and runs her own integrated behavioral-health clinic within the Division of Developmental Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

On this episode of the Mental Health Crossroads podcast, our host Jeff Sheen interviews Dr. Elaine Eisenbaum from Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky. They discuss her educational background, her current projects including the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities National Training Center, and how they both became involved in the field of disabilities and their interest in disability rights. Some of the links mentioned in this episode are: Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky: https://www.hdi.uky.edu/ Voices page on the MHDD website, you can access transcripts of previous podcasts and find a link to share your story about mental health and intellectual and developmental disability through our digital storytelling initiative: https://mhddcenter.org/voices/ To access a full transcript of this episode head to:Episode 2 Transcript_Dr. Elaine Eisenbaum AUCD (Association of University Centers on Disability) website: https://www.aucd.org//template/index.cfm Guest Biography: Dr. Elaine Eisenbaum serves as a Project Director at University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute (HDI), a federally designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). Prior to joining HDI, Dr. Eisenbaum worked at the University of Texas, Texas Center for Disability Studies, where she taught disability studies courses while obtaining her PhD in Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Eisenbaum’s scholarly work aims to create intervention models focused on improving health outcomes and well-being for people with disabilities. Her research interests include universal design, health disparities among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, co-occurring mental illness and intellectual disabilities, transition, and eugenics and disability history. Currently, Dr. Eisenbaum is Project Director on a 3-year Administration for Community Living grant, building a National Training Center on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, which will include universally designed web-based trainings.   Music is "Looking Down the Road" by Jonny Clay

In this episode, we once again caught up with the Boston University Research Team, including Ariel Schwartz, Jesse, Alix, and Jenna. What makes this team unique is the involvement of young adults self-advocates in every step of the research process, using a method called participatory action research. In this episode, they talk about they recent project into how young adults choose to disclose their mental health status in the workplace and the results of that decision. This is the last episode in the MHDD series, but please follow our new podcast: DDNJ Author Insights https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/ddnj/ for more great podcasting.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode we hear from David Jones, who is the Director, Office of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (OIDD) and Acting Director, Office of Disability Services Innovation (ODSI); Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Prior to joining ACL in July 2020, David served in two federal agencies focused on disability employment and programs. At the U.S. Department of Labor, David oversaw the administration of Disability Employment Initiative grants and technical assistance contracts to help strengthen the capacity of American Job Centers serve people with disabilities. At the U.S. Department of Education, David monitored state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies and was a Program Officer for two Protection and Advocacy programs (PAIR and PAAT). Prior to his career focus on the disability mission work, David served within the Inspector General (IG) community for three federal agencies and the United Way of America. Originally from Pennsylvania, David holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Bucknell University and a Masters of Public Administration from George Mason University.   Transcripts of this episode are available in English and Spanish.   https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/wioa     Visit our website at www.MHDDcenter.org for more information about our work.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In part two of our two-part interview with Margaret Gilbride, JD, CT, we talk about grief and loss and how these experiences can impact people with IDD.    Margaret is the Director of Transition, Employment and Aging at The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities. She is a graduate of Indiana University Law School and a certified death educator. Margaret has worked in the disability field for thirty years in a variety of capacities, primarily focused on either increasing access to competitive employment for transitioning youth and adults with significant disabilities or acknowledgment and support for the grief shouldered by people with I/DD as a result of multiple life losses, including deaths of loved ones. She serves as President of National APSE and is Immediate Past President for New Jersey’s APSE Chapter. Additionally she is a Governor’s appointee to both the New Jersey Commission on National Community Service and Volunteerism and the State Rehabilitation Council. She successfully completed a previous appointment to the New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Council on End-of-Life issues. For the last twelve years Margaret has been researching and training on the impact aging as well as grief and loss have on people with developmental disabilities as well as bioethical issues in healthcare and end-of-life treatment particular to this population.   Transcript are available in English and in Spanish.       Resources mentioned in this interview include:   http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/RespondingtoGriefReactionsIDD.pdf http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/RitualizingGriefIDD.pdf http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/GriefIDDResourceList.pdf http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/HelpingGriefIDD.pdf   Visit our website at www.MHDDcenter.org for more information about our work.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In part one of our two-part interview with Margaret Gilbride, JD, CT, we talk about grief and loss and how these experiences can impact people with IDD.    Margaret is the Director of Transition, Employment and Aging at The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities. She is a graduate of Indiana University Law School and a certified death educator. Margaret has worked in the disability field for thirty years in a variety of capacities, primarily focused on either increasing access to competitive employment for transitioning youth and adults with significant disabilities or acknowledgment and support for the grief shouldered by people with I/DD as a result of multiple life losses, including deaths of loved ones. She serves as President of National APSE and is Immediate Past President for New Jersey’s APSE Chapter. Additionally she is a Governor’s appointee to both the New Jersey Commission on National Community Service and Volunteerism and the State Rehabilitation Council. She successfully completed a previous appointment to the New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Council on End-of-Life issues. For the last twelve years Margaret has been researching and training on the impact aging as well as grief and loss have on people with developmental disabilities as well as bioethical issues in healthcare and end-of-life treatment particular to this population.   Transcript are available in English and in Spanish.       Resources mentioned in this interview include:   http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/RespondingtoGriefReactionsIDD.pdf http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/RitualizingGriefIDD.pdf http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/GriefIDDResourceList.pdf http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/departments_institutes/boggscenter/links/documents/HelpingGriefIDD.pdf   Visit our website at www.MHDDcenter.org for more information about our work.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this second part of our interview with James Steed, he talks about his personal background, mental health, and how he got involved in self-advocacy work. James Steed is a self-advocate from Pocatello, Idaho who has lived all across the western U.S. James was one of the founders of the self-advocacy movement in his home state of Idaho, and is the former chair of the Idaho Developmental Disabilities Council. James currently lives in Utah, and is a member of the Utah UCEDD Community Advisory Council and is a member of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities National Training Center Advisory Board. Full transcripts are available in English and in Spanish. Visit our website at www.MHDDcenter.org for more information about our work.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode Matt Wappett interviews James Steed about his personal background, mental health, and how he got involved in self-advocacy work. James Steed is a self-advocate from Pocatello, Idaho who has lived all across the western U.S. James was one of the founders of the self-advocacy movement in his home state of Idaho, and is the former chair of the Idaho Developmental Disabilities Council. James currently lives in Utah, and is a member of the Utah UCEDD Community Advisory Council and is a member of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities National Training Center Advisory Board. Full transcripts are available in English and in Spanish. Visit our website at www.MHDDcenter.org for more information about our work.   *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode, host Tatiana Perilla interviews Loui Lord Nelson, Ph.D., owner and lead consultant at The UDL Approach, about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how this contributes to mental health.   Loui Lord Nelson, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized educational consultant in the area of Universal Design for Learning and is the host of the popular podcasts UDL in 15 Minutes and UDL Research in 15 Minutes. A former special educator, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship with CAST and Boston College. While there, she wrote the best-selling book Design and Deliver: Planning and Teaching Using Universal Design for Learning which was based on her work as the UDL Coordinator for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation in Columbus, Indiana from 2007 – 2012. The second edition of that book will come out in February of 2021. Since 2013, she has provided long-term training and workshops across the US and internationally including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Japan, Malawi, Singapore, and Uganda. Other publications include a co-authored a chapter for the book Research-based Practices for Educating Students with Intellectual Disability titled “The role of technology in implementing universal design for learning” and a co-authored book titled, Culturally Responsive Design for English Learners: The UDL Approach. Her third book about UDL is interactive. It is titled A Tree for All: Your Coloring Book of UDL Principles and Practice. Building on that theme of interaction, she also created a card game called Go Fishing with UDL. Loui lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband and 5 (yes, 5) cats and enjoys running, reading, and traveling.   www.cast.org www.udl-irn.org www.theudlapproach.com www.mhddcenter.org English Transcript Spanish Transcript     *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode Matt Wappett interviews Julie Christensen about employment and mental health. Julie J. Christensen, MSW, PhD, is the Director of Policy & Advocacy and Interim Executive Director at the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE). She also currently serves as the Senior Disability Policy Advisor for the Harkin Institute at Drake University. Prior to joining APSE, Dr. Christensen was the Director of Iowa’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at the University of Iowa, where she held a research faculty appointment in the Carver College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Christensen received her undergraduate degrees in advertising and music from Syracuse University, and a Masters in Social Work from Roberts Wesleyan College and her Ph.D. in Health Practice Research at the University of Rochester. APSE website Transcript (English) Transcript (Spanish) *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode, host Tatiana Perilla interviews Maria (Conchita) Hernandez Legorreta. Conchita was born in Mexico and grew up in California. She advocates for the rights of students who are blind and their parents in the public-school setting in the United States and abroad through a lens of intersectionality focusing on social justice. Conchita received her Bachelor's degree from Saint Mary’s College of California, majoring in International Studies, Spanish, and History. She then went on to Louisiana Tech University where she received her Master’s in Teaching with a focus on teaching students who are blind. As well, Conchita earned a master’s certificate in working with students who are deaf-blind from Northern Illinois University. She is currently a Doctoral student at George Washington University pursuing a degree in Special Education. Conchita has been published in Future Reflections and Rooted in Rights. Conchita keeps up with research in special education and serves as a peer reviewer on the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research. Conchita conducts workshops on best practices for educators and professionals in the field of disability and advocacy in the United States and internationally. Conchita worked in the rehabilitation field in Nebraska where she set up innovative programming for adults with disabilities. Conchita is the founder and Chair of METAS (Mentoring Engaging and Teaching All Students) a non-profit organization that trains educators in Latin America that work with students with visual impairments and other disabilities. In this role she engages lawmakers in policy discussions around people with disabilities and inclusion. Conchita is also a co-founder of the National Coalition of Latinx with Disabilities that seeks to amplify the voices of Latinx individuals in the disability rights movement. Currently, Conchita works as the Maryland Blind and Low Vision Specialist. Conchita strives to be a voice for change for educators, professionals and advocates to make full inclusion a reality for people with disabilities in Latin America.   Full transcripts are available in English and in Spanish.   Twitter: @Conchitahdz Article in Refinery 29 Disability Visibility podcast Tuesdays with Liz: Disability and Employment Allure Magazine The Heumann Perspective Rooted in Rights     *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode we interview Sue Reeves, the director of the Aggies Elevated program. Aggies Elevated is a federally designated Comprehensive Transition Program (CTP) at Utah State University that offers a two-year certificate in Integrated College and Community Studies for young adults with intellectual disabilities. Sue discusses the program’s organization, highlights some of their successes, and shares lessons learned.  Sue also discusses how CTPs support students with intellectual disabilities manage their mental health and develop skills needed to graduate college and transition into the workforce. A full transcript of the interview is available here in English and in Spanish. Bio: Sue Reeves holds a BS in Journalism and a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, a Licensed Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, and is completing requirements for licensure as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor. She is the director of Aggies Elevated, an inclusive two-year certificate program for students with intellectual disabilities, at Utah State University. She became interested in the intersection of mental health and intellectual/developmental disabilities as an MRC intern with Aggies Elevated. In her spare time, she tends to rabbits, chickens, a cat named Dog, and her partner on their farm at the south end of Cache Valley.   Links https://diverseeducation.com/article/197099/ https://aggieselevated.usu.edu/ https://www.mhddcenter.org/     *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

In this episode Tatiana Perilla from the MHDD-NTC has a conversation with Mark Smith, from the Munroe-Myer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He shares his path to his current professional role and many of the things he has learned in his career. Full transcripts of this interview are available in English and Spanish.   BIO: Mark A. Smith first and foremost is the sibling to and parent of family members with disabilities. He received his Bachelors Degree in Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 1989 and his M.S. in School Psychology from the University of Nebraska in 1995. Prior to joining the Nebraska University Center on Disabilities at the Munroe-Meyer Institute as an Assistant Professor in 2003, Mark served as School Psychologist in local school districts and as a Behavioral Therapist with disability providers and private clinics. Mark’s primary area of interests to date have included early childhood services, Special Education, Family Support, leadership, and Disability Policy and Legislation at the local and national levels. Over the past 45 years of working in disability services, Mark has been involved in directing and evaluating several projects designed to improve community resources and services for individuals with disabilities and their families, including relocating individuals from institutional to community care. He has also been involved in writing, teaching, and developing and providing training on a wide variety of disability related issues and has engaged in policy analysis and development at the state and national level as a member of the AUCD and DEC Policy Committees and Executive Boards. His research interests include systemic change initiatives designed to promote community inclusive practices in support of individuals with disabilities and their families, general disability policy and programming, community planning for inclusion and accessibility for individuals with disabilities who are members of marginalized groups. Mark and his family live in Omaha, Nebraska and enjoy cycling, going for long walks with their dogs, and playing music.   Links: English transcript Spanish transcript Mark's profile and contact information MHDD National Training Center     *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"  

In this episode Matt Wappett hosts a conversation about policy with Rylin Rodgers from AUCD. Rylin Rodgers is the Director of Public Policy at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities where she works on federal policy and legislative issues that affect people with developmental disabilities and their families. Prior to working at AUCD, Rylin served as the Training Director and Family Leadership Coordinator for the Riley Child Development Center (Indiana's LEND), and was a founding board member of Family Voices Indiana. Both as a parent and as a professional, Rylin has extensive expertise on topics including special education regulations, public and private health care financing and family/professional partnerships.   English Transcript Transcripción en Español   Links: AUCD Policy Page      *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and this month’s episode focuses on disability, mental health, and domestic violence. We address these topics (abuse, neglect, and exploitation, including sexual assault), so if you are sensitive to these topics, please be aware of that. Jill Anderson and Cheryl Atwood are our guests - Jill is the director of CAPSA which is a non-profit domestic violence, sexual abuse, and rape recovery center and Cheryl is the director of Options for Independence, a center for independent living in Utah. They’ve worked together to improve response to domestic violence cases involving adults with disabilities. We have linked multiple resources below, which we mention in this episode. Transcripts: English Spanish Links: CAPSA https://www.capsa.org/ Options for Independence http://www.optionsind.org/ This is the National Domestic Violence Hotline website. They have a phone number and their website is available in English in Spanish. Also, this link lists their different options for contacting an advocate for individuals who are Deaf. APS map that website for each state and reporting phone number. State statues on mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect, and adult protective services Law enforcement and disability: The Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability Ruderman Family Foundation Report NAMI United States Civil Rights Commission Utah Crisis Response   Bios:  Jill Anderson is the Executive Director of CAPSA, a non-profit organization providing services to and empowering individuals and families impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault. Jill began her career working with at-risk youth in youth corrections and mental health organizations. It was during her time volunteering for CAPSA that she quickly became passionate about working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Since that time she has dedicated more than 25 years to serving survivors and working to prevent abuse from happening in our community. In 1997, Jill became the Executive Director of CAPSA, and through Jill’s vision and inspired leadership, CAPSA has grown from a one-home shelter to a full organization providing comprehensive services that meet the complex needs of survivors. In addition to spearheading facility expansion, including building a new victim support center, shelter, and a transitional housing subdivision (Independence Place), Jill has enhanced programs and expanded the capacity of CAPSA to provide critical 24-hour services. Jill has served on a number of Boards and Committees over the years working with non-profit organizations and on state and federal level policy issues. In 2013, she was named Resident of the Year by the Herald Journal, and in 2016, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Utah State University’s Center for Women and Gender. Jill is committed to empowerment-based, survivor-informed programs & processes and, above all else, strives to empower individuals and families to use their knowledge and strength to create safe and stable homes for themselves and their children.   Cheryl Atwood is the Executive Director of OPTIONS for Independence, the Northern Utah Center for Independent Living. Cheryl has worked in the Independent Living field for over 32 years and is committed to the Independent Living philosophy, which means every person, regardless of disability, has the potential and the right to exercise individual self-determination. Through work on Department of Justice, Office on Violence against Women funded grants, Cheryl has implemented programs and supports for people with disabilities who have experienced violence or sexual assault. Cheryl has served on various state and local committees and is currently a member of the Association for Independent Living of Utah, Neighborhood Housing Solutions, and the Bear River Health Department. Through service on these boards and her own personal experience, she represents people with disabilities well. *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"

This is the last episode of our first season. Producer, Alex Schiwal has a conversation with our season one host, Jeff Sheen. They discuss highlights and lessons from season one, Jeff’s background and future plans, and changes to expect for season two.  BIO:   Jeff Sheen received his B.S. in Sociology with a Minor in Social Work from Utah State University in 1999. He completed his MSW Degree at the University of Utah in 2002 and his Ph.D. in Disability Disciplines at USU in 2017. Prior to joining the Social Work faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2020, Jeff served as the Associate Director of Research and Training at the Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) at USU where he began working as a social work practicum student in 2001. Jeff’s primary area of interest to date has been in interdisciplinary macro practice and community development, especially related to the disability field. Over the past 20 years of working in the disability community Jeff has been involved in directing and evaluating several projects designed to improve community resources and services for individuals with disabilities and their families. He has also been involved in developing and providing training on a wide variety of disability related issues and has engaged in policy analysis and development at the state and national level as the Chair of Senator Hatch's Disability Advisory Committee and member of the Utah Statewide Independent Living Council and CPD Policy Team. Jeff has previously been an adjunct instructor for the Departments of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling, Psychology and Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology at USU. His research interests include systemic change initiatives designed to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities and their families, general disability policy and programming, inclusion of young adults with intellectual disabilities in postsecondary education, community planning for inclusion and accessibility for individuals with disabilities and other marginalized groups, and mindfulness-based interventions for parents of children with disabilities. Jeff and his family love living in Cache Valley and enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities including paddle boarding, canoeing, hiking, adventure motorcycle riding and just sitting by the river or under a tree.   Links:   English Transcript Spanish Transcript   www.mhddcenter.org  *Music Credit: Music for our podcast is licensed from Marmoset Music. Artist: Johnny Clay; Song "Looking Down the Road"