Two Vanderbilt trainees are serving as Virtual Trainee Liaisons in the national network of UCEDD and LEND programs connected through the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD).
These days, tech savvy is a highly marketable skill. Knowing your way around social media is increasingly essential to share your message with a large audience in a short amount of time. More and more businesses and organizations are using Twitter and Facebook to connect with patients and clients in ways that e-mail and telephone cannot.
The Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) sees the same need in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a result, AUCD has sought out trainees from Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) training programs and University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) from around the country to serve as “Virtual Trainee Liaisons.”
“Social media is a way for trainees to connect with colleagues around the 43 LENDs, 67 UCEDDs and beyond, said AUCD Executive Director Andy Imparato. “It can help you learn about new research and initiatives, find others who share your interests, be part of a national conversation, and advance your career goals. Together, these trainees, with support from Virtual Trainees and Trainee Liaisons, can help raise the profile of disability issues on social media and can be a force for change in policy advocacy. You have power as individuals and collectively, and social media can amplify that power.”
Two Vanderbilt trainees – TRIAD Postdoctoral Psychology Fellow and LEND trainee Neill Cox Broderick, Ph.D., and LEND/UCEDD Social Work trainee Lisa Hale – volunteered to become Trainee Liaisons and to share developments and ideas from their respective programs with other trainees nationwide via social media.
“Our role as trainee liaison is to serve as intermediary between LEND/UCEDD and national AUCD,” said Broderick. “The venue allows us to see and interact not only with other trainee programs, but also with multiple disciplines.”
“We communicate monthly with the others by sharing newsworthy accomplishments and demonstrating how we approach LEND and UCEDD here at Vanderbilt,” said Hale, “what we do uniquely that would be valuable to other LENDs and UCEDDs on a national level.”
As trainee liaisons, Cox and Hale consult with LEND Director Tyler Reimschisel, M.D., UCEDD Director of Training Evon Lee, Ph.D., and VKC Communications to compile interesting developments as well as to discuss practical applications of social media activity in a Vanderbilt LEND/UCEDD setting. These developments are submitted to an AUCD Virtual Trainee, who moderates these findings into a practical, accessible medium that engages and encourages discourse among trainees.
Social media is only one component for this communication across state lines. AUCD also offers a special Trainee Corner page on the AUCD website where LEND and UCEDD trainees can read articles, watch videos, and learn about upcoming trainee events across the U.S.
“As liaisons at Vanderbilt, we serve as a funnel. When we have things like our new Volunteer Advocacy Project-Transition program or interesting and exciting research happening here, we feed it up to national AUCD,” said Hale. “Likewise, when there’s great discussion about major policies like the ABLE Act, the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or IDEA, we can feed that down to our fellow trainees.”
Connecting each of these trainee programs is a grassroots campaign by Imparato, a frequent “Tweeter” himself, to encourage collaboration with up-and-coming leaders among various disciplines in order to advance disability policy, advocacy, leadership, and best practices for future generations of trainees and disability professionals.
“It’s a beautiful way to understand objectively what our collective goals are,” said Hale.
Pictured above: (left to right) Neill Cox Broderick, Ph.D. and Lisa Hale
