3/9/06 Contact:
Diane Glanzer, 334/844-8105 (glanzed@auburn.edu)
David Granger, 334/844-9999 (grangdm@auburn.edu)
AUBURN’S
ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
AUBURN - The Auburn University College of Education’s Auburn Transition
Leadership Institute will host the 16th annual Transition in Alabama conference
March 13-15 at the Marriott Lodge and Conference Center at Grand National
in Opelika.
The Institute, which serves Alabama by helping to improve the quality
of life for young citizens with disabilities, expects more than 600 Alabama
stakeholders at the conference, bringing to more than 8,000 the total
annual conference participants since 1991.
A major attraction at this year’s conference is Madeline C. Will,
a national advocate for people with disabilities for three decades. President
Ronald Reagan appointed Will assistant secretary to the U.S. Department
of Education in the early 1980s. While in this office, she became founder
and architect of the national movement of school-to-work for youth and
young adults with disabilities.
Will has continued through the years to be a national leader in the field
of disabilities. In 2002, she became chair of President George W. Bush’s
Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, and two years later
she was named the director of the Policy Center for the National Down
Syndrome Society. That same year, she received the President’s Award
for Moral and Policy Leadership in mental retardation. Internationally,
Will has served five nations in Central Europe as a disability consultant
to nonprofit and government organizations.
This year’s conference includes eight day-long workshops on Monday,
34 concurrent sessions on Tuesday to be delivered by more than 75 presenters
and a Share Fair on Wednesday.
Attendees will be entertained at a Tuesday evening banquet at which Cynthia
Outman, a recipient of President Bill Clinton's Award for Educational
Excellence, will tell her own remarkable transition story of never giving
up until she achieved her goals, which included graduating from high school
with honors in 1996.
Following Outman will be a performance by Willie Moody, an accomplished
pianist, vocalist, lyricist and composer who has been blind since the
age of two. He has opened shows for Ray Charles, performed at the John
F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and represented Georgia for
the Itzhak Perlman Award.
AU’s College of Education has played a leadership role in addressing
the challenge of preparing disabled young persons to “cross the bridge,”
or successfully transition, from school to community as responsible and
productive young adults. Philip Browning, department head of Rehabilitation
and Special Education and co-director of the ATLI, was awarded last years
AU Award for Excellence in Outreach for his contributions to transition.
For further information on the conference, contact Diane Glanzer at 844-8105
or glanzed@auburn.edu.
Auburn University is a preeminent land-grant and comprehensive research
institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff.
Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama’s
largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate,
graduate and doctoral degree programs.
(Contributed by Katie Crew.)
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mar06:AU-disabilitiesconference