Professor Appointed to President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities

Posted in GUMC Stories

December 7, 2016 - When Tawara D. Goode, MA, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at GUMC’s Center for Child and Human Development, received a call from the White House this spring, she was surprised and suspicious.

“It just has to be a crank call,” she said, recalling her thought process. “It has to be.”

It wasn’t. Goode, who also serves as director of the National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) and deputy director of the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, was nominated by President Obama to serve as a member of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

“I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to serve the American people in these important roles,” President Obama said in an announcement about Goode’s and other pending appointments. “I look forward to working with them.”

The committee meets three times a year and advises the president on policies and initiatives that support the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of community life, Goode said. Her term on the committee began in November 2016 and expires in May 2018.

Goode’s pioneering work with and on behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has resulted in two new grant awards from the US Department of Health and Human Services. A five-year cooperative agreement for $1,747,865 will support the development of a community of practice intended to increase the number, diversity and capacity of formal and informal leaders to transform developmental disabilities systems.

Using its successful Leadership Institute for Cultural Diversity and Cultural and Linguistic Competence as a starting point, the NCCC will ultimately use the award to put states and territories in a better position to address the growing diversity in the US and advance cultural and linguistic competence in developmental disability systems.

Goode also received a one-year grant for $275,729 for the Georgetown University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) to develop a diversity and inclusion training action plan. This grant is a collaborative effort with the UCEDDS at Georgia State University and University of Southern California and is designed to create core curricula content on cultural and linguistic competence that will be used by 67 university programs in the US.

“The HHS Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities ​has made an unprecedented investment to ensure that the programs that it funds have the capacity to respond effectively to the interests and needs of the diverse population of people who experience developmental disabilities who reside in the US, its territories, and in tribal communities,” Goode said.

Kat Zambon
GUMC Communications