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IHDD Director’s Note: Summer 2026
Dear IHDD Community,
We made it through Spring quarter, and if we can just hold on through the cold, dark month of June, we have hope for summer. After the funding uncertainty of the past year, we also have hope for another year of continued federal support. We had an opportunity to apply for bridge funding for the IDDRC; the UCEDD appears to be moving into its 5th year of continuation funding; and the LEND notice of funding opportunity was released. These funding sources provide foundational support for the IHDD’s training, research, and community engagement activities, so we are grateful to see progress.
In April, I attended the AUCD Leadership Symposium in Austin, where I met and learned from national UCEDD and LEND leadership. We talked about the challenges facing our programs and the creative ways they are being addressed. We have great programs here at UW, but we are also lucky to be part of a rich network of colleagues across the nation who are doing innovative work and advocating for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. I hope to continue building our relationships and collaborations with programs across our larger network.
In June, I attended the annual meeting of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) in Chicago. AAIDD celebrated its 150th anniversary! For such an august organization, it demonstrated its ongoing relevance with sessions about technology and AI, the dangers of misinformation in our information society, and strategies for including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities on our research teams. The IHDD plays an important role in translating evidence into practice, and I look forward to integrating new research findings into our training and community-engaged work.
At home at the UW, we continue to work on our integration into the Department of Pediatrics, to communicate our value to the School of Medicine and upper campus leadership, and to build and sustain our own programs within the IHDD. Those who attended our IHDD Networking Day experienced the richness of our research, training, and service activities. We plan to continue the tradition of Networking Day as an annual spring event to connect across our diverse programs and share our work with each other and the broader university.
I hope you all have a productive summer, with plenty of time for rest and relaxation during the sunny months ahead.
Mark
IHDD Director’s Note: Summer 2026
Dear IHDD Community,
We made it through Spring quarter, and if we can just hold on through the cold, dark month of June, we have hope for summer. After the funding uncertainty of the past year, we also have hope for another year of continued federal support. We had an opportunity to apply for bridge funding for the IDDRC; the UCEDD appears to be moving into its 5th year of continuation funding; and the LEND notice of funding opportunity was released. These funding sources provide foundational support for the IHDD’s training, research, and community engagement activities, so we are grateful to see progress.
In April, I attended the AUCD Leadership Symposium in Austin, where I met and learned from national UCEDD and LEND leadership. We talked about the challenges facing our programs and the creative ways they are being addressed. We have great programs here at UW, but we are also lucky to be part of a rich network of colleagues across the nation who are doing innovative work and advocating for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. I hope to continue building our relationships and collaborations with programs across our larger network.
In June, I attended the annual meeting of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) in Chicago. AAIDD celebrated its 150th anniversary! For such an august organization, it demonstrated its ongoing relevance with sessions about technology and AI, the dangers of misinformation in our information society, and strategies for including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities on our research teams. The IHDD plays an important role in translating evidence into practice, and I look forward to integrating new research findings into our training and community-engaged work.
At home at the UW, we continue to work on our integration into the Department of Pediatrics, to communicate our value to the School of Medicine and upper campus leadership, and to build and sustain our own programs within the IHDD. Those who attended our IHDD Networking Day experienced the richness of our research, training, and service activities. We plan to continue the tradition of Networking Day as an annual spring event to connect across our diverse programs and share our work with each other and the broader university.
I hope you all have a productive summer, with plenty of time for rest and relaxation during the sunny months ahead.
Mark
