Cassondra is currently the Program Coordinator for Project STEMM – Up for Louisiana Rehabilitation Services. Where she works the project team to create career pathways for people with disabilities from racial/ethnic minority and other marginalized communities into the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. She has twenty years of experience working with individuals with disabilities, both within the United States and internationally. She holds a graduate degree in Communicative Disorders and a post-graduate degree in Special Education with an Emphasis on Dual Sensory Impairment. Cassondra began her career working as a Speech Language Pathologist on the Traumatic Brain Injury team at Methodist Rehabilitation Hospital. This experience provided Cassondra the opportunity to be introduced to the field of deafblindness. In 2002, she began her postgraduate training in dual sensory impairment. After receiving her postgraduate degree, Cassondra worked for the Department of Rehabilitation Services as a deafblind specialist, assisting individuals in communication, daily living skills and employment development. During this time, she was named a Helen Keller Fellow and received an award for case of the year from the Southeast Institute on Deafness. After three years as a deafblind specialist, Cassondra became State Coordinator for Deafblind Services for the Department of Rehabilitation. Her four year stint, as state coordinator, lead her to the Louisiana State University Deafblind Project. Cassondra’s position at the Deafblind Project was program coordinator working with individuals birth to twenty one years of age. A transfer lead her to Texas, where she worked for Health and Human Services as a program specialist and program manager for the Blind Children’s Program.
Presentation:
Project STEMM-UP