Lifeline Online Late Fall Early Winter 2009 Issue 103
News for the Investigators, Staff and Friends of the Life Span Institute

FEATURED

Exercise, healthy hearts and healthy brains: LSI researchers document a vital connection

In addition to Kathleen Gustafson, several Life Span researchers are focusing on the connection between exercise and improved cognitive functioning and overall physical health in children, adults, the elderly and people with disabilities. Read Full Story

LSI scientist studies impact of mom’s wellness on baby’s long-term health

It’s long been known that exposure to toxic elements or disease during critical periods of fetal development can compromise a child’s physical and cognitive development. Now an LSI-affiliated neurologist is honing in on the opposite -- how the wellness choices a pregnant woman makes can benefit the life-long health of her offspring. Read Full Story

ADMINISTRATIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Groovin’ to move at Juniper Gardens

The Juniper Gardens Children’s Project has launched a fundraising effort called “Move’n On Up” to support the purchase of furniture and equipment for its new quarters in the Children’s Campus in downtown Kansas City, Kan. Juniper Gardens will be on the third floor of the new $15.5 million facility currently under construction on the corner of 5th Street and Minnesota Avenue. Read Full Story

HONORS

Grad students receive Friends of the Life Span Institute research awards

Emily Zimmerman and Xiaoyi (Kimberly) Hu are the winners of the fifth annual Friends of the Life Span Institute Graduate Research Assistant Awards. Read Full Story

MILESTONES

Zamarripa retires after 40 years of service; receives first Jay Turnbull Fellowship

Edward Zamarripa, LSI director of finance and administration, was honored for his 40 years of service by all four LSI directors, Richard Schiefelbusch, Stephen Schroeder, Steve Warren and John Colombo, at a November 30 reception at the Adams Alumni Center. He also was awarded the first Jay Turnbull Fellowship by Rud Turnbull, co-director of the Beach Center on Disability. Read Full Story

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT NEWS

During this quarter, LSI investigators generated 45 new proposals and received four new grants. Two of the awards and 12, or 27 percent, of the new proposals were generated by junior investigators. Seven of the proposals, or 16 percent, came from investigators submitting for the first time through LSI. See the Complete List

IN THE NEWS

Promises kept: Autism center holds first statewide conference for families and practitioners

When it was founded in July 2008, the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART) vowed to widely disseminate practical knowledge backed by research to those Kansans whose lives are touched by Autism Spectrum Disorders as individuals with ASD, family members, practitioners and policy makers.

On Nov. 6-7, 2009, K-CART met an important milestone as part of that mission with Autism Across the Life Span, a two-day conference at the Hilton Wichita Airport Convention Center designed for both professionals and non-professionals. The conference drew more than 300 persons from all corners of the state including Oakley, Dodge City, Manhattan, Great Bend, Parsons and northeast Kansas. This included 72 family members and 19 students.

The conference provided an opportunity for educators, researchers, service providers and families from across Kansas to come together to experience the latest information regarding evidence-based practices in Autism, said Sean Swindler, K-CART director of community program development and evaluation.

"We were able to deliver practical information, stimulate discussion and movement on best practices and plant the seeds for future training and research opportunities.”

The conference exemplified KU cross-campus collaboration as the planning committee and conference leaders represented the Life Span Institute in Lawrence, Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in Kansas City, KUMC’s Center for Child Health and Development and the Parsons LSI. Handouts and presentation descriptions are available on the K-CART web site.

KCART hosts Midwest site of national town hall meeting on adults with autism

In another demonstration of its growing regional reputation, KCART, the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, was tapped to be the regional host and organizer of a major national town hall meeting on autism, with Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo. and the Bi-State Autism Initiative.

Sixty-five people from Kansas and Missouri
represented the region at the National Town Hall:
Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism
on Nov. 13 in Kansas City

More than 1200 people across the nation, including 65 at the Kansas City Kauffman Center, met in the day-long working session linked by satellite and webcast to develop an actionable national policy agenda for life-long living and learning with autism.

This they did: At the end of the day participants had whittled down—by discussion and vote—a long list of issues to a compact preliminary report establishing priorities and suggesting strategies that will be presented as the consensus statement from the AFAA National Town Hall to members of Congress in 2010 as well as other federal, state and local policymakers.

Overall, seven percent of the participants were adults with autism.

Ann Turnbull (right) parent and Beach Center
on Disability co-director, acted as a small
group facilitator at the Town Hall Meeting that
included parents such as Debbie Beeler (left)
as well as adults with autism, community
advocates, educators, practitioners and service
providers.

Among the strategies that rose to the top were:

• Change existing and establish new funding streams so that the financial assistance follows the person and can be used in a variety of ways to meet a person’s unique and evolving needs.
• Increase the availability of qualified and motivated personnel who support adults with autism.
• Create and expand career development and vocational skills training programs for individuals with autism while they are still in school.
• Direct support towards residential service models that are person-centered and actively seek to meet the needs and interests of adults with autism.

Locally, the Kansas City participants will meet in January to review the final report and establish realistic local action steps based on the work done at the end of the Town Hall to begin impacting these issues at the state and local levels.

The event was covered by the Kansas City Star. Slideshow of event.

KCART, the Life Span Institute’s newest research center, was formed in 2008 with private and public funds to conduct and support the dissemination of evidence-based research and is directed by Deborah Kamps, Ph.D., and Matthew Reese, Ph.D.