34. Collaboration Roundtable Between COMS, TVIs, and Audiologists
Speakers: Jennifer Craig, Au.D., CCC-A; Tara Kelly, M.S., M.Ed.; Greg Lazur, Kaycee Bennett, M.Ed.
*This speaker will be presenting in person at the Penn Stater.
**This session is available for in person attendance only.
The importance of multidisciplinary collaboration cannot be overstated when working with students with combined vision and hearing needs. This roundtable session featuring consultants from the Texas and Pennsylvania Deaf-Blind Projects will focus on supporting students with deaf-blindness through a multidisciplinary lens. Panelists will field questions from the audience on the barriers to collaboration and examine potential solutions that yield increased collaboration across disciplines within teams and programs. Resources that can be useful in supporting students with deaf-blindness across a variety of educational settings and age ranges will be shared.
Credits: Act 48, ASHA, ACVREP
Audience: Special Education Teachers; Teachers who work with students who are blind or visually impaired; Teachers who work with students with hearing loss; Teachers who work with students who are Deaf-Blind; Speech Therapists; General Education Teachers; Supervisors/Administrators; Assistive Technology Specialists; Occupational Therapists and/or Physical Therapists; Orientation and Mobility Specialists; School Counselors and/or School Psychologists; Parents, Guardians, Family Members; Paraprofessionals
Speakers' Bios:
Jennifer Craig, Au.D., CCC-A is an Educational Consultant in the Western Regional Office of PaTTAN. Jennifer is serving on the Deaf/Hard of Hearing initiative, DeafBlind initiative, Secondary Transition and Assistive Technology. Jennifer received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from The University of Pittsburgh. She completed her doctorate at Salus University. Dr. Jennifer Craig has spent the majority of her professional career at The Western PA School for the Deaf as the Educational Audiologist, Outreach and Parent Infant Coordinator as well as serving as a clinical supervisor and part time professor at The University of Pittsburgh teaching Audiology Assessment, Educational Audiology and Anatomy and Physiology of Hearing before joining PaTTAN as an Educational Consultant. Jennifer’s professional goals include promoting outcomes comparable to hearing peers for all children who are deaf and hard of hearing, deaf /blind, communication access, and seamless cooperation between clinic and school needs as well as family involvement.
Tara Kelly, M.S., M.Ed. is an Educational Consultant currently serving as the Project Lead for Pennsylvania’s Deaf-Blind Project housed within PaTTAN’s Deaf-Blind Initiative; she also serves on the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Family Engagement Initiatives. Tara received her master’s degree in Deaf Education from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY, and has enjoyed working with students and families as a teacher, educational interpreter, and early interventionist. She earned her second master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Wilmington University and has been an administrator at intermediate unit and state programs for deaf/hard of hearing and deaf-blind students in Delaware and Pennsylvania. She is a Google Certified Educator and holds a certificate in Instructional Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is pursuing her doctorate in Learning Design and Leadership. Tara is a proud twinmom to Tommy and Will (4), and together with husband/dad, Brian, they are learning the ropes of the autism world.
Greg Lazur is an educational consultant with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) and is assigned to the Pittsburgh office. He joined PaTTAN after starting his career at Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, where he served multiple roles as a behavior specialist, teacher of the visually impaired, orientation and mobility specialist, and administrator for the residential program. He holds multiple degrees from the University of Pittsburgh including a master’s degree in early intervention and special education, certification as a teacher of the visually impaired and is a certified orientation and mobility specialist.
Kaycee Bennett joined the Texas Deafblind Project in 2019 after working with school districts in the North Texas area as an auditory impairment specialist where she worked with teachers and their students who are deafblind on a regular basis. Her passion is creating better programming, access, and communication for these students and the staff supporting them. Kaycee is a certified Teacher of Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and has a graduate certificate and master’s degree in deafblind education from Texas Tech University. She worked as a classroom teacher and an itinerant teacher for 10 years before joining the Texas Deafblind Project. Kaycee received the Marty Murrell Excellence in Education Award for her work teaching and assisting deafblind students and their teachers, representing the top honor in her profession in the state in 2019. Currently Kaycee is involved in developing training to improve instruction for students who are deafblind and considered proficient communicators.
Email: bennettk@tsbvi.edu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/txdeafblindproject Twitter: @TXDBProject Website: https://txdeafblindproject.org/