CCIDS
News
CCIDS Director Invited to Serve on Interagency Autism
Coordinating Committee (IACC) Strategic Planning Workgroup
(April 8, 2008) CCIDS Director Lucille Zeph has been invited to
serve on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Strategic Planning Workgroup by Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of the workgroup is to
provide broad scientific expertise and to make recommendations to
the IACC regarding the strategic plan for autism spectrum disorder
research. Authorized under the Combating Autism Act of 2006, IACC
coordinates autism spectrum disorder research and other efforts
within the Department of Health and Human Services and across other
federal agencies. Lu served as a member of the IACC from 2004-2007.
Gilson & DePoy Awarded Faculty Fellowships for 2008 Summer
Institute in Israel
(March 24, 2008) Elizabeth DePoy and Stephen Gilson, professors
of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies, Center for Community
Inclusion and Disability Studies and Social Work, have been awarded
faculty fellowships for the 2008 Summer Institute in Israel, June
16-27, 2008.
The Summer Institute is a competitive academic fellowship and
seeks to link scholars from diverse disciplines with their Israeli
counterparts at major institutions for the purpose of initiating
exchanges and collaborations. DePoy and Gilson are among fifteen
faculty selected from 200 applicants from around the United States.
Participants will meet with professionals and experts, including
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, involved in Israel’s government,
industry, education, media, and other sectors to understand the
facets of Israel’s evolving national and international policies.
Sponsors for the Summer Institute include the following: The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University
of the Negev, Bar-llan University, the Interdisciplinary Center
Herzliya, the University of Haifa, Scholars for Peace in the Middle
East, the Jewish National Fund, and Media Watch International.
Mason New President-Elect of National Organization
(March 5, 2008) Craig Mason, associate professor of education and
applied quantitative methods with a joint appointment in the Center
for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, recently was elected
president-elect of the
National Birth
Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN).
The organization seeks to establish and maintain a national
network of state and population-based programs for birth defects
surveillance and research to: assess the impact of birth defects on
children, families and health care; to identify factors that can be
used to develop primary prevention strategies; and to assist
families and their providers in secondary disabilities prevention.
Members include health officials and researchers from across the
United States. NBDPN works closely with related national
organizations such as the March of Dimes and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
CCIDS Honors Maine Attorney General for Public Policy Change in
Inclusive Early Care and Education
(February 26, 2008) CCIDS Director Lucille Zeph recently
presented the Center’s 2007 Daring to Dream Award for Public Policy
Change to Maine Attorney General, the Honorable G. Steven
Rowe, J.D. This award recognizes an individual or
organization for vision and leadership that promotes public policy
change to advance the civil rights of people with disabilities.
 “Steve
Rowe has actively supported the development of public policy and
practice that integrates the current knowledge base in neuroscience
related to early brain development into supports and services for
young children and their families,” says Zeph. “He’s spent countless
hours crossing the state to address various community and business
leaders regarding the need for investment in high quality,
accessible, and inclusive early care and education.” Rowe has served
as Maine’s Attorney General since 2001.
Photo credit: William Drake, University of Maine
Blagojevic Article Appears in New NAEYC Publication
(February 19, 2008) CCIDS Research Associate Bonnie Blagojevic
and her co-author, Pre-K teacher Anne Sprague, have published an
article,
The Digital Camera: A Tool for Creative Teaching, in the
February 2008 issue of Teaching Young Children. The
article provides preschool teachers with examples of how to use
digital photos to organize the environment, support curriculum
goals, document children's learning, support children who are
English-language learners or those with disabilities, and strengthen
family partnerships.
TYC is a brand new magazine from the
National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world’s
largest organization for early childhood educators. The publication
highlights current thinking on best practices in early childhood
education, innovations in the field, research and its implications,
and interesting ideas for and from preschool teachers.
Portland Early Literacy Collaborative Staff to Present at ELL
Conference
(February 8, 2008) CCIDS Research Associates Bonnie Blagojevic,
Sue Chevalier, and Martie Kendrick, and Early Childhood Coordinator,
Linda Labas, are scheduled to present at the Early Language
& Literacy – On the Horizon Conference in Augusta, ME on
March 7-8, 2008. All are members of the
Portland Early Literacy
Collaborative (PELC).
The conference will be held at the Augusta Civic Center and is
sponsored by the Portland Early Literacy Collaborative, Spirals
Early Reading First Programs, U.S. Department of Education, and
Child Development Services, Maine.
(February 1, 2008) Assistant Research Professor Valerie Smith
(CCIDS and COEHD), and Associate Professor Tina Passman (Department
of Modern Languages and Classics), were recently awarded a $1500
online course development grant as part of the UMaine Continuing
Education Division and Summer Session's 11th Annual Grant Program.
Their 300-level online interdisciplinary course, Foundations
of Universal Design: The Ecology of Human Environments,
investigates the new paradigm of human communities that addresses
the diversity of all potential users. The environments considered
include physical, social, educational, commercial, spiritual, and
creative communities. The course will be designed using WebCT and
offered in Fall 2008.
Smith and Passman are members of the Center’s
Equity and
Excellence in Higher Education Project and the
Interdisciplinary
Disability Studies Academic Committee (IDSAC). Passman is also
Director of the Critical Languages Program and Acting Director of
the Peace Studies Program.
CCIDS and NERCEP Partnership Enters Third Year
(October 1, 2007) CCIDS is entering the third year of its
partnership with the University of Massachusetts Boston, Institute
for Community Inclusion, to provide the needed link with Maine for
the
New England Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program
(NERCEP). NERCEP is part of the Rehabilitation Services
Administration’s national network of continuing rehabilitation
education centers for employment service providers, offering
training and technical assistance to improve employment outcomes for
people with disabilities.
The Center’s primary role in the project is to provide technical
assistance and curriculum development expertise focusing on the
employment support needs of individuals with autism. The Center has
developed and field-tested an employment curriculum,
Supporting Employment for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder,
and will offer it in Maine and New England.
Robert (BJ) Kitchin receives 2007 APHA DisAbility Forum Award
(September 27, 2007) CCIDS Research Associate Robert (BJ) Kitchin is this year's
recipient of the American Public Health Association's DisAbility
Forum Student Member Award. This competitive award is presented each
year to one student who has conducted promising work to advance the
health and quality of life of people with disabilities. Currently,
BJ is pursuing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. that examines the
intersection of accessibility, human rights and technology within
the framework of disability studies.
Web Portal to Translate Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Websites
into Accessible Formats
(September 15, 2007) CCIDS has been awarded funding from the
American Legacy Foundation for a one-year initiative entitled the
Tobacco Access Portal Project. In collaboration with Trefoil
Corporation of Orono, Maine and the Bangor Literacy Center, this
project involves the development, evaluation, and dissemination of a
web portal that will translate existing tobacco prevention,
cessation and control websites into low literacy and accessible
formats. Elizabeth DePoy (Professor and Coordinator of
Interdisciplinary Disability Studies) and Stephen Gilson (Professor,
Interdisciplinary Disability Studies) are Co-Principal Investigators
on the project.
DePoy, Gilson Publish New Text on Social Work, Human Behavior
(September 7, 2007) Elizabeth DePoy and Stephen Gilson, Co-Coordinators of the
Center's Interdisciplinary Disability Studies concentration and
Professors of Social Work, recently published their seventh book, a
textbook titled The Human Experience: Description, Explanation, and
Judgment (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)
Building on historical and current diversity scholarship and
debates, DePoy and Gilson posit that individuals are assigned to
diversity categories and engender both public and private responses
on the basis of changing sets of values. In this new text, the
authors advance a framework that expands and shifts
conceptualizations of diversity.
CCIDS Awarded Four-Year OSEP Personnel Preparation Grant
(September 1, 2007) The University of Maine Center for Community
Inclusion and Disability Studies, in collaboration with the College
of Education and Human Development and the Maine Department of
Education, has received funding from the Office of Special Education
Programs, U.S. Department of Education, to support a four-year
project to address Maine’s critical need for highly-qualified Early
Childhood Special Educators. The project,
Training Opportunities for
Personnel (TOP): Birth-5, represents Maine’s only outreach graduate
study designed to prepare highly-qualified early intervention and
early childhood personnel to serve young children birth to age five
and their families through the State of Maine’s coordinated birth-5
service delivery system. Courses emphasize interdisciplinary,
inclusive, family-centered, culturally competent, evidence-based
competencies and practices.
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