On July 1, 2011, the Nevada Center for Excellence in Disabilities (NCED) in the College of Education, in collaboration with the Division of Health Sciences, was awarded a $2½ million grant over five years to establish the Nevada Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (NvLEND) program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Stephen Rock, NCED; Dr. Erika Ryst, Department
of Psychiatry; and Dr. Debra Vigil, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology are project co-directors. The NvLEND is one of 43 LENDs in 36 states and the District of Columbia (for a directory of programs see http://www.aucd.org/LEND). LEND programs are federally funded under the 2006 Combating Autism Act and are administered by the Health Resources and Service’s Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). They operate within a university, often as part of a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD, in Nevada this is the NCED). The goal of LEND programs is to improve the health of infants, children, and adolescents with autism and other disabilities through interdisciplinary training of practicing professionals, parents, and graduate students from diverse professional disciplines to assume leadership roles in their respective fields. While each LEND program is unique, they all provide interdisciplinary training, have faculty and trainees in a wide range of disciplines, and include parents or family members as paid program faculty and as program participants. LEND programs share the following objectives:
advance the knowledge and skills of all child health professionals to improve health care delivery systems for children with developmental disabilities;
provide high-quality interdisciplinary education that emphasizes the integration of services from state and local agencies and organizations, private providers, and communities;
provide health professionals with skills that foster community-based partnerships; and
promote innovative practices to enhance cultural competency, family-centered care, and interdisciplinary partnerships. For the NvLEND, each year 12 trainees will be recruited (typically one from each discipline). The trainees will participate in 104 hours of didactic training, 96 hours of clinical experiences, and 110 hours on a leadership project.
