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New York Medical College
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Ansley Bacon, Ph.D. (in red), leads a team of professionals who have helped give the LEND program its staying power. From left are Marilyn Klein, M.A., CCC-SLP, John Maltby, M.S.W., Patricia Aguayo, M.D., M.P.H., Catherine Yankou, M.P.H. ’07, Barbara Levitz, M.S.Ed., Dr. Bacon, and Patricia Towle, Ph.D. Not pictured is Lisa Katz, L.M.S.W.
Changing the System, Changing the World The well-regarded LEND program taps multiple disciplines to train future leaders to better address the needs of children with disabilities and their families.
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atricia Aguayo, M.D., M.P.H., was pregnant with her daughter when her two-year-old son was diagnosed with autism. At the time, Dr. Aguayo was a medical school graduate and a stay-at-home mom. She was also immersed in her son’s care, isolated and depressed. While searching for services for him, she found the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD) and, in turn, Leadership Education in Neurodevelop mental and related Disabilities (LEND), a nationwide, interdisciplinary training program for health professionals who work with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, and for parents and siblings of individuals with disabilities and other special health care needs. In LEND, Dr. Aguayo found something she hadn’t expected: a tightly-knit community of health care professionals and some
By Andrea Kott, M.P.H.
families who bring invaluable leadership training and skills to the work and advocacy they do on behalf of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. “I thought, ‘Oh my God. I want to be like these people,’” Dr. Aguayo says. The LEND program is operated at WIHD, which is a federally funded University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). WIHD runs LEND in partnership with the Center on Disability and Health at the College’s School of Health Sciences and Practice (SHSP). LEND is funded through a $693,000 grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which was recently renewed through 2016 (the first grant was awarded in 1968). This in itself is an achievement, as only a handful of programs nationwide enjoy consistent renewal.