UConn Plays Host to International Sport Mentoring Program

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Editor’s Note: This piece originally was published on UConn Today.

Karen Chammas, 2019 Global Sports Mentoring Program Delegate.
Karen Chammas, who visited the Neag School’s sport management faculty this fall, represented her native Lebanon in the sport of judo at the 2012 Olympic games. (U.S. Dept. of State in cooperation with University of Tennessee Center for Sport, Peace, & Society. Photographer: Jaron Johns)

There’s an Olympian spending time at the University of Connecticut right now and, if you think it’s a Husky basketball player, you are wrong.

The athlete is Karen Chammas, who represented her native Lebanon in the sport of judo at the 2012 London games, and she is spending late October and early November in Storrs as part of the Global Sports Mentoring Program.

The Global Sports Mentoring Program is an international leadership development project that was launched seven years ago by the U.S. Department of State. One of its two objectives is advancing gender equity by empowering women through sports, and the other is advancing disability rights. The program is managed out of the University of Tennessee and ESPNw, part of the ESPN family of network that specializes in women’s sports programming.

“I want to raise awareness for teachers, for parents, and for kids about how important it is to start sports at an early age.”

— Karen Chammas,
Global Sports Mentoring Program Delegate

Each year, about 15 women from around the globe are selected to visit the U.S. for the five-week program. Approximately three weeks of that time is spent at a host site.

UConn is currently the only university host, while other institutions include professional sports organizations, collegiate leagues, and conference and sport management corporations. This is the fourth year that UConn has participated, having already welcomed women from Uganda, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

“This program is in alignment with a lot of the work we do,” said Laura Burton, a professor in the Neag School of Education, who specializes in gender issues in sport and leadership in sport organizations, and has spearheaded UConn’s participation in the program. “We are really involved with some good company in this program like the NCAA, the Big East Conference, the United States Tennis Association and companies like Google. We connect different parts of campus into the visit like athletics and the Women’s Center, so it really has a big reach.” Burton, along the Department of Educational Leadership’s Jennifer McGarry and Danielle DeRosa, acted as the hosting mentors.

Chammas is currently the athletics coordinator at the Lebanese American University, where she also earned her undergraduate degree. She also has an master’s of business administration in sport management from the EU Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

“What is exciting for us is that we learn the challenges and opportunities for women across the world,” said Burton. “I remember having a conversation with Agnes Baluka of Uganda and we talked about how challenging some things were in her country.

“But, we also talked about the same types of restraints she deals with that we have in the United States like finding qualified coaches, making sure you have the right type of equipment, and scheduling games. You see the connection of sport here to sport globally.”

Before she arrived at UConn, Chammas spent time in Washington, D.C., and California getting to know the other Global Sports Mentoring Program participants.

At the end of the program, she will develop an action plan based on her experiences and present it in Washington, D.C. when the entire group reconvenes in mid-November. Her presentation will be about empowering girls in Lebanon through sport, and judo in particular.

“I want to raise awareness for teachers, for parents, and for kids about how important it is to start sports at an early age,” said Chammas. “I want to start my own judo academy in Lebanon.”

Chammas started judo and gymnastics when she was three years old and both she and her parents heard familiar comments that stereotype young girls in sports.

“I was told I would become too muscular and not look like other girls,” said Chammas. “Even things like I wouldn’t get married. When I was around eight, I wanted to quit, and my mother said no because she had already paid for my lessons. I actually did give it up when I was 12, and after a few weeks the president of the national judo federation called me and asked me if I wanted to be in the West Asian games.”

Chammas went to the West Asian Games, held in Jordan, and later took part in the Arab Championships in Yemen, qualifying  for the 2010 Olympics.

“Competing became my passion and I wanted to through with it until the end,” said Chammas. “The Olympics were the best experience of my life. I loved being in the village and around the top athletes in the world.”

Chammas is also an accomplished basketball player as a member of both the Lebanese national team and at the Lebanese American University.

Burton hopes that Chammas leaves her brief time at UConn with a network of people to connect with for the future.

“This is education in a different way, not in a classroom setting, but developing a plan,” said Burton. “It is great for her to see the high level of sport that we offer, but that we are also struggling with the same things.”

Learn more about the program at globalsportsmentoring.org.

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$1M in Federal Funding to Support Doctoral Students in Special Ed

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Kaitlin Leonard
Kaitlin Leonard joined the Neag School in the fall of 2015 as a Ph.D. student in special education, fully funded by the National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention (NCLII). The NCLII is now providing the Neag School with another $1 million to fund three additional doctoral students in special education for four years apiece. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)

In partnership with a consortium that includes six other universities across the nation, the Neag School’s special education doctoral program and Center for Behavioral Education and Research (CBER) will once again be part of a federal grant designated to support a total of nearly 30 future scholars in the field of special education.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention 2 (NCLII-2) Training Grant will provide the Neag School with $1 million to fund three doctoral students in special education for four years each. With the nation’s shortage of qualified scholars specializing in special education, NCLII’s mission is to prepare leaders in this area to become experts in research on intensive intervention for students with disabilities who have persistent and severe academic and behavioral difficulties. Consortium partner institutions include Vanderbilt University, Michigan State University, University of Georgia, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Minnesota, and University of Texas at Austin.

“I knew this grant was special, but I really had no idea the access that I would have to leaders in the field of special education and the opportunities I would have to collaborate with NCLII faculty and students.”

— Kaitlin Leonard,
Fully funded Ph.D. candidate, Special Education

“This is an amazing opportunity for our students to work with great faculty here and at our partner universities,” says Devin Kearns, associate professor in the special education program at the Neag School who serves on NCLII’s curriculum design committee. “The NCLII program — now in its fourth year — has a track record of producing great scholars who do cutting-edge research and are excellent teachers.”

Funding recipients will take part in an online core curriculum focused on intensive intervention and will also share on NCLII’s dedicated project website content intended to advance research on, and implementation of, intensive intervention. In addition to four years of financial support, each Ph.D. candidate will have numerous opportunities to carry out research across the consortium’s partner institutions; interact with leading special education experts at each institution; as well as intern with national centers supported by OSEP.

In 2015, Kaitlin Leonard joined the special education doctoral program at the Neag School with four years of Ph.D. studies covered, thanks to the NCLII’s initial grant. Now in the dissertation phase of the program, Leonard has had the opportunity to take part in evaluating interventions, creating course materials, writing manuscripts, traveling to national conferences, and serving as a research assistant.

“I knew this grant was special, but I really had no idea the access that I would have to leaders in the field of special education and the opportunities I would have to collaborate with NCLII faculty and students,” says Leonard. “It has also impacted my future moving forward. NCLII funding has supported costs for my dissertation, and I have had the fortune of working with special education faculty such as Chris Doabler from UT Austin and Kristen McMaster from University of Minnesota, whose expertise along with Neag faculty — namely Mike Coyne, Brandi Simonsen, Devin Kearns, and Sarah Woulfin — has been invaluable.”

Learn more about the special education doctoral program’s various scholarship opportunities at s.uconn.edu/spedphd. Register now for a free upcoming information webinar about the special education doctoral program — including numerous opportunities for scholarship and fellowship support — to be held on Nov. 8, 2019. Applications to the Ph.D. program in special education are due Dec. 1.

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Educating Educators to Help Children With High-Intensity Special Needs

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Editor’s Note: This piece originally was published on UConn Today.

Mary Beth Bruder
Mary Beth Bruder has received a $6.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a doctoral leadership program to train 28 future faculty. These trainees will then design and teach courses and programs designed to prepare teachers and specialists to provide interventions to infants and young children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Infants and young children who have high-intensity learning needs like autism or intellectual disabilities do not always learn in the same ways as children without such challenges. Specialized curricular programs designed for children with high-intensity needs help them reach developmental, behavioral, and functional outcomes, reach their maximum potential, and work independently later in life.

Director of the UConn A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service (UConn UCEDD), Mary Beth Bruder has received a $6.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a doctoral leadership program to train 28 future faculty. These trainees will then design and teach courses and programs of study designed to prepare teachers, social workers, and therapists to provide specialized interventions to infants and young children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

Bruder’s project will train a group of doctoral students across nine universities for future careers as researchers in this specialty area of early intervention, early childhood special education, and related services such as occupational therapy, social work or speech, language and pathology. After meeting the doctoral program requirements, the students will obtain their degrees through the program and discipline in which they are enrolled. In addition to UConn, the universities participating in the consortia include: The Universities of Cincinnati, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Illinois, North Carolina, Washington, and Vanderbilt University.

In addition to their formal program of study at their respective institutions, the students will have the opportunity to engage in advanced research and education specific to early childhood intervention for infants and young children with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities. The doctoral students will also participate in various leadership activities to help them acquire competencies they will need as faculty. These include designing courses and teaching assignments, participating in the design and evaluation of policy and legislation, and implementing research studies. Both faculty and students will collaborate and work across all the consortia universities to form a network of experts who can be resources to other faculty, doctoral students, early childhood interventionists and families of infants and young children with high-intensity learning needs.

“The focus on early childhood in our country today provides a wonderful opportunity to create a workforce for future generations of infants and young children who have disabilities, so they may reach their optimum potential through inclusive preschool, school and post school learning opportunities. The UConn UCEDD is privileged to help make this happen.”

— Professor Mary Beth Bruder

The consortia will also create a website to distribute and share curricular materials, tools, and resources to help the doctoral students in this program, and other doctoral students and faculty in higher education programs across the country.

“The focus on early childhood in our country today provides a wonderful opportunity to create a workforce for future generations of infants and young children who have disabilities, so they may reach their optimum potential through inclusive preschool, school and post school learning opportunities. The UConn UCEDD is privileged to help make this happen,” says Bruder.

Professor Michael Coyne with schoolchildren
“We are committed to training the next generation of special education researchers and university faculty, and participating in these two national leadership consortia will allow us to recruit and support the very best doctoral scholars in the nation to come and study at the UConn Neag School of Education,” says Professor Michael Coyne, co-investigator on project.

To expand the impact of the consortia, it will partner with other Office of Special Education programs such as the Early Childhood Personnel Center, which is also directed by Bruder. This center oversees a $10-million project that helps states expand and improve the early childhood intervention workforce. Other partners include the Association of University Centers on Disabilities and Division for Early Childhood, Council for Exceptional Children.

“We are committed to training the next generation of special education researchers and university faculty, and participating in these two national leadership consortia will allow us to recruit and support the very best doctoral scholars in the nation to come and study at the UConn Neag School of Education,” says Michael Coyne, professor of educational psychology and a co-investigator on the project. In addition to Coyne, other investigators at UConn include Bernard Grela at from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Cristina Wilson at from the School of Social Work.

Bruder earned her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in developmental disabilities in early childhood. Since 1976, Bruder has been involved in early childhood intervention research, and the design, provision and evaluation of early childhood intervention services across the country. At present, Bruder directs numerous federally funded pre-service, in-service, demonstration, and research projects. She is a professor of Public Health Science and Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and is the editor of the journal Infants and Young Children.

This project is award H325H190004.

CSCH Co-Hosts Second Symposium on Trauma-Informed School Mental Health

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DCF Deputy Commissioner Michael Williams presenting.
DCF Deputy Commissioner Michael Williams presents to the attendees of the second Trauma-Informed School Mental Health, co-hosted by UConn’s Collaboratory on School and Child Health earlier this week. (Angela King/Neag School)

Approximately 70 school, behavioral health, community, and research leaders from across the state gathered at the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019, to discuss school and community responses to childhood trauma and how to align work around trauma-informed schools in Connecticut.

The event, “Symposium on Trauma–Informed School Mental Health 2.0,” was the result of collaboration between the University of Connecticut Collaboratory on School and Child Health, the Ana Grace Project, Capitol Region Education Council, the Child Health Development Institute, Clifford Beers Clinic, the state Department of Children and Families, the state Department of Education, and the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education. The symposium’s main goal was to continue conversations about broadening and aligning work around trauma-informed schools in Connecticut, moving forward the work of the Connecticut Trauma-Informed School Mental Health Task Force, a group that was formed after the original symposium in May 2017.

“In Connecticut, we have a lot to be proud of. But there is still a lot of work to do. We can’t rest on our laurels. When we talk about trauma–informed care, let’s make sure we’re talking about all kids.”

— Michael Williams, DCF Deputy Commissioner

Opening remarks were provided by Nelba Marquez-Greene of the Ana Grace Project, who charged participants with the question: “Who will you give a voice to, and how will you do this with integrity?” Jeana Bracey from the Child Health and Development Institute and Tim Marshall of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, members of the Task Force steering committee, then hosted a kick-off discussion and DCF Deputy Commissioner Michael Williams offered comments to encourage forward movement. “In Connecticut, we have a lot to be proud of,” he began. “But there is still a lot of work to do. We can’t rest on our laurels. When we talk about trauma–informed care, let’s make sure we’re talking about all kids.”

Attendees broke into facilitated discussion groups to focus on prevention through screening/early identification; enhancing services to meet intensive needs; aligning policies and practices to facilitate sustainability; and building collaborations across public-private partnerships. Group facilitators were charged with establishing questions to discuss challenges, opportunities, and actions relevant to the topic area. John Frassinelli, Bureau Chief of the Health, Nutrition, & Family Services Bureau at the Connecticut State Department of Education, shared that sustainability requires thinking about strategies rather than programs, and that school leaders must ask “what is the problem that this is trying to solve?” when considering something new.

The groups later reconvened to summarize the big ideas. Participants put forward ideas such as embracing focus on core values (e.g. healthy relationships) over specific programs, the creation of a road map and state consensus on mental health screening in schools, a state-level shift on how to define child success that is consistent across districts, the importance of supporting social-emotional needs of staff, and the importance of engaging families and the community in addressing childhood trauma.CSCH Logo.

Jeana Bracey, Associate Vice President for School and Community Initiatives at the Child Health and Development Institute, and Sandra Chafouleas, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Neag School and Co-Director of the UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health, are co-chairs of the Connecticut Trauma-Informed School Mental Health Task Force. They reflected on the energy of participants from across sectors who were excited to come together to tackle issues around supporting schools in sustained implementation of trauma-informed policies and practices that meet diverse needs. “The first symposium in 2017 focused on increasing awareness of childhood trauma and started to talk about how to address it as a state,” said Bracey, “Last time, we focused on talking about it, on thinking about it. This time we are focused on getting it done.” Chafouleas echoed the energy around action, noting participant “commitment to whole child well-being and agreement around healthy relationships are a critical foundation.”