Event Type: Lecture

Speaker Information: Dr. Jamie Pearson, Assistant Professor of Special Education, NC State University

Connecting FACES: Strengthening Agency, Advocacy, and Access among Historically Marginalized Families Supporting Autistic Children

Dr. Jamie Pearson, a former ABA therapist and program consultant, is an Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Pearson earned her Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she developed FACES, a parent advocacy program designed to support African American families of children with autism.

Racially marginalized autistic children and their families experience ongoing disparities related to autism identification, service access, child outcomes, and family quality of life. In this presentation, Dr. Jamie Pearson will highlight how FACES–Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Support–a family centered advocacy intervention, aims to increase Black families’ capacity to (a) advocate for school and community-based services and (b) build partnerships with professionals (e.g., Special Educators, Speech Language Pathologists, and Behavior Analysts) to strengthen student’s’ social communication and behavioral outcomes.

Dr. Pearson will also discuss ways that FACES partners with community-based organizations to strengthen service access and utilization for Black families.

Finally, she will provide strategies for practitioners and researchers to facilitate culturally responsive partnerships with historically marginalized families in their own communities.

For those who cannot attend in person, the event will be livestreamed at this link starting at 4 p.m.

Contact: Lisa Denson-Rives217-300-2752
lkdenson@illinois.edu

Sponsor: College of Education