HOST | FACILITATOR

Maureen van Stone, Esq., MS, Director, Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities, Director, Project HEAL

 Maureen van Stone is the director of the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities (MCDD) at Kennedy Krieger Institute and the founding director of Project HEAL (Health, Education, Advocacy, and Law), a MCDD community-based program. Project HEAL is Maryland’s only comprehensive medical-legal partnership, which provides advocacy and legal services to children with disabilities who receive services at Kennedy Krieger. Maureen is an associate faculty for the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and affiliate faculty for the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. She is former faculty for Kennedy Krieger's Center for Innovation and Leadership in Special Education, adjunct faculty at Towson University, and The University of Baltimore School of Law. Maureen is a member of Kennedy Krieger’s ethics program. Maureen earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Southern California, a master’s degree in developmental psychology at The Johns Hopkins University, and a Juris Doctor at Whittier Law School, with a concentration on children’s legal issues. 

GAP ANALYSIS

Kara Ayers, PhD, Assistant Professor affiliated, University of Cincinnati, Associate Director, University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCCEDD)

Kara Ayers, PhD, is the Associate Director and an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCCEDD). She is Director of the Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities and also a co-founder of the Disabled Parenting Project. Dr. Ayers’ interests include disability identity/culture, bioethics, community inclusion, and the use of media to teach, empower, and reduce stigma. She serves on multiple task forces and national and state coalitions related to improving outcomes for people with disabilities and infuses the mantra, “Nothing about us without us,” into all of her scholarly and community-based pursuits.

PANELIST - Prenatal Diagnostics

Brian Skotko, M.D., M.P.P., Emma Campbell Endowed Chair on Down Syndrome, Massachusetts General Hospital

A Board-certified medical geneticist, Dr. Skotko is the Emma Campbell Endowed Chair on Down Syndrome at Massachusetts General Hospital.  As the Director of the hospital’s Down Syndrome Program, he has dedicated his professional energies toward children with cognitive and development disabilities. He co-authored the national award-winning books, Common Threads: Celebrating Life with Down Syndrome and Fasten Your Seatbelt: A Crash Course on Down Syndrome for Brothers and Sisters. He is a graduate of Duke University, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Kennedy School, and he is currently an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Skotko is a leader on clinical and translational research about Down syndrome. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, NPR’s “On Point,” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Dr. Skotko has a sister with Down syndrome and serves on the Honorary Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress.

PANELIST - End of Life Care/Aging

Clarissa Kripke, MD, FAAFP, Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

 Dr. Clarissa Kripke, MD is a Family Physician on the Clinical Faculty of the University of California, San Francisco. She is Director of the Office of Developmental Primary Care https://odpc.ucsf.edu whose mission is to build the capacity of the health care system to serve transition age youth and adults with developmental disabilities. She is the primary care physician for many of the Bay Area’s most medically fragile and behaviorally complex patients.

PANELIST - Suicidality/Mental Health

Johnny Payne MEd CDP, Director of Mental Health Services, Orange Grove Center, Chattanooga Tennessee 

Johnny Payne is a Mental Health Practitioner with many years of experience developing functional skills for adults with disabilities, especially individuals with autism and co-occurring mental health challenges. He is passionate about organizational development, evidence-driven interventions, and large-scale innovation that benefit individuals with disabilities. He is naturally driven towards relationship-building, high energy collaboration, and connecting people to vision and mission. Johnny is also a passionate outdoorsman and enjoys canoeing and fly-fishing around Chattanooga Tennessee where he lives with his wife and son.