Florida Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired
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Message from the President
January 2023
Greetings! I am looking forward to serving as your AER chapter president during 2023 and 2024. As you may know, the 2022 AER Biennial International Conference theme was “Gateway to Community”. This theme struck me as incredibly relevant, as the past few years have demonstrated how we are made for community. As professionals working in the field of visual impairments, it may be challenging to feel connected, especially if you are working in rural areas, as an itinerant service provider, or are new to the field. Fortunately, FAER provides opportunities to meet with and learn from others who are working toward the same goal. In 2022, the FAER board provided several virtual networking opportunities with plans to continue these throughout 2023 and beyond. We are also gearing up for the 2023 FAER Conference, which will be held November 28 & 29 at the Tradewinds Island Resort in St Pete Beach. This conference will be immediately followed by the Getting In Touch With Literacy conference, which is also being held at the Tradewinds. We hope that you will consider contributing to the success of this and future FAER conferences, whether by volunteering to be on a committee, suggesting conference themes, submitting proposals, becoming a vendor, and of course, helping to grow our community by attending!
Sincerely,
Liz Anderson FAER President
Board of Directors
President
Elizabeth Anderson
Liz is the supervisor for the Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired (FIMC-VI). At FIMC-VI, her mission is to ensure both high quality instructional materials and professional development are provided to stakeholders statewide. As a certified teacher of the visually impaired and certified orientation and mobility specialist (COMS), Liz has taught in Hillsborough County Public Schools and several agencies. She is also a member of the Florida Virgin Islands Deafblind Collaborative Advisory Board and the American Printing House for the Blind Product Review Committee.
President Elect
Tiffany Conrad
After receiving both her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Visual Disabilities from Florida State University, Tiffany served as an itinerant teacher of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility specialist in various counties in Florida including Broward, Lee and Hillsborough. She is currently the Coordinator for Hillsborough County’s Visually Impaired Program. She is a Nationally Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist through the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals. Tiffany has spent over 15 years dedicated to providing access and increasing levels of independence for all students with special needs and is honored to serve as the new Educational Member at Large for the Florida Chapter of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Past President
Peta-Gaye Yee Kee
Peta Gaye holds a B.S. from Florida State University in Visual Disabilities and Orientation and Mobility, and an M.Ed. from the University of North Florida in Emotional Handicaps. Employed in the field of Special Education for 29 years, she have worked with students with visual impairments, autism, intellectual disabilities, and emotional handicaps. For the past 17 years, Peta-Gaye has been employed as a TVI for the St. Johns County School District, and is the lead teacher for the VI team. She has been a member of AER for 17 years, and assisted FAER in the facilitation of the AER International Conference in Jacksonville.
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Treasurer
Sandy Lewis
Now a professor in the School of Teacher Education at Florida State University, Sandra Lewis previously worked as an educator of individuals with visual impairments of all ages in a variety of educational, home, and community settings. Dr. Lewis is known for her publications and presentations that support quality services to meet the needs of adults and children with visual impairments and edited a book on strategies for teaching the expanded core curriculum. She serves on numerous national, state, and local committees and was honored as the Mary K. Bauman award recipient—one of AER’s highest honors—in 2010. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness.
Secretary
Sue Glaser
Sue Glaser has been a Statewide Educational Specialist for Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired coordinating events and workshops for students, families, and teachers since 2008. She has been the Transition Program Coordinator at the Lighthouse for the Blind & Low Vision in Tampa since 2002, planning and implementing year-round school-to-work programming for students with visual impairments aged 14 and up. Sue also taught as a TVI and O&M instructor in Hillsborough County Schools for 12 years and was the coordinator of Florida State University’s Satellite Program in Visual Disabilities for 17 years, recruiting, advising, and teaching future teachers of students with visual impairments.
Member at Large-Rehabilitation
Rachel Hage
Rachel Hage holds a B.A. in both Entrepreneurship and Marketing with a Minor in French Studies from Florida Atlantic University. She currently works as an independent contractor for Allied Instructional Services as an Assistive Technology Specialist. She first began training as an Assistive Technology Instructor for Lighthouse of Broward from early 2016 until late 2022. She began by teaching Assistive Technology to the transition students at Lighthouse of Broward before instructing AT for the adult rehab programs. Rachel has been a Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist (CATIS) through ACVREP since 2019. She is dedicated to helping those who are blind and visually impaired to use screen readers, magnification programs, braille displays, computers, smartphones, tablets, and various AT devices. She assisted in teaching those within both the vocational rehab and independent living programs, as well as training those striving towards their academic goals.
Rachel has served as a member on the FAER Communications Committee since 2020.
Member at Large - Rehabilitation
Rachael Sessler Trinkowsky
Rachael Sessler Trinkowsky, Ph.D., CRC, CATIS is the Technology Training and Vocational Coordinator for the Lighthouse for the Blind of the Palm Beaches. She is the Program Coordinator for the Assistive Technology for People with Visual Impairments program at the University of Massachusetts Boston and has developed this program through UMass Boston to prepare professionals for the CATIS credential through ACVREP. Additionally, she is adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in the Assistive Technology Certificate Program at UIC. She has been a Co-Strand Advisor for the Vision & Hearing Strand for ATIA since 2019. For more information, visit Rachael’s faculty webpage.
Member at Large - Education
Jessica Smith
Jessica has been working in the field of visual impairments for 6 years. She started as a vision specific paraprofessional in Cirtus County while attending classes to become a teacher of the visually impaired at FSU’s satellite campus at St. Petersburg College. She then moved to Hillsborough County and continued her role as a paraprofessional working with students who have visual impairments and brailling materials. She graduated from FSU’s visually impaired education program in December 2020 and continued on to finish her Master’s degree in December 2021 to become an orientation and mobility specialist. She has worked with teens at the Lighthouse for the Blind & Low Vision during the summer transition program as well as year-round activities. She worked as a TVI/O&M in Hillsborough County until May 2022 and is now teaching in Brevard County as a TVI and O&M instructor.
Member at Large - Education
Susan Yarbrough
Susan Yarbrough was recently awarded her Ph.D. from Florida State University and has eagerly joined the FSU Visual Disabilities Program faculty, for which she is teaching courses in O&M, reading, and working with children who have multiple disabilities. She is a TSVI and COMS with experience teaching at a residential school. She is especially interested in improving ECC instruction for students with visual impairments and developing the capacity of caregivers to teach their children.