Members Honored With Awards at CEC Convention

Teacher of the Year

Shelly Carney, an educator of the deaf and sign language interpreter at the Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, received the 2019 Clarissa Hug Teacher of the Year Award.

Carney has served as a teacher since 1990. Many of her students have multiple disabilities in addition to hearing loss, including autism, childhood apraxia of speech, cerebral palsy, and cognitive challenges. Students in Carney’s class benefit from her use of an “auditory-visual continuum” instructional approach that ensures all students can access information in the channel most appropriate for them.

She continually addresses and adapts to student needs, utilizing concepts and curricula that are simplified, repeated, and revisited for students who need additional support, while posing new questions and challenges for students who are ready for content that is more complex.

Special Education Research Award

Asha Jitendra, PhD, professor, and Peloy Chair in Learning Disabilities at the University of California–Riverside, received the 2019 CEC Special Education Research Award.

Jitendra was honored for her outstanding research supporting the academic success of children with or at risk for learning disabilities. She has built an impressive 25-year research portfolio focused on mathematics and word-problem solving. Jitendra’s passion for this type of research was ignited by her daughter’s learning difference diagnosis at the age of 4 months.

Her research into schema-based instruction has resulted in more than 125 publications, over 300 presentations, and $9 million dollars in research grants. Her published works have provided educators with the means to evaluate school-based materials and modify instructional components to allow students with exceptionalities to access the general education curriculum.

Lifetime Achievement Award

David Test, PhD, professor of special education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, received the CEC J. E. Wallace Wallin Lifetime Achievement Award.

Test has spent a lifetime bridging the research-to-practice gap for the education of children and youth with exceptionalities. As a prolific scholar, his work has resulted in more than 160 publications, including four textbooks. His more recent works have focused on self-determination, self-advocacy, evidence-based practices for secondary transition, community-based training, and supported employment.

Test and his research colleagues have received more than $35 million in federal and state grants and contracts. Most notable is his work on the National Center for Special Education Research project, “Communicating Interagency Relationships and Collaborative Linkages for Exceptional Students.” Test and his colleagues created a multilevel intervention model that includes interagency collaboration and teaming as a key component to ensure positive postschool outcomes for students with disabilities.

He served as the coeditor of the Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals journal for the last 15 years and is also co–project director of the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition.

Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award

Megan Foreman, a special education and elementary mathematics double major at Western Michigan University, received the 2019 CEC Outstanding Undergraduate Student of the Year Award.

Foreman displays a strong commitment to academic and community leadership and has shown extraordinary academic and teaching acumen in her unwavering commitment to supporting students with exceptionalities. An active and vocal member of the campus community, she serves as president of the Michigan Council for Exceptional Children’s Student Board and is involved in other campus organizations.

Foreman has taught math at local schools and at a juvenile detention home in the Kalamazoo, Michigan, area. She has also tutored numerous students at Loy Norrix High School and held a position as a youth development worker with Communities in Schools.

Business Organization Award

Microsoft received the 2019 CEC Business Organization Award for its efforts to expand career access for individuals with disabilities.

Since 2009, Microsoft has offered its disAbility program, a network of 10 different groups representing individuals with a variety of disabilities, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, mobility, and vision and hearing impairments.

Microsoft initiated an autism hiring program that includes a multiple-day hands-on academy focused on workability, team projects, and skills assessment. During the event, individuals showcase their abilities, meet hiring managers and teams, and learn about Microsoft.

The program allows candidates with autism to circumvent the social skills barriers that would otherwise overshadow their talents. Microsoft has succeeded in hiring software, service, build, and lab engineers; data analysts; and scientists through the program, which also enables them to thrive in their work lives.