IDEAL – About Us

(Click Here to Find Out!)

Spenser Norris is the Academic Inclusion Advisor at IDEAL as well as a Community Services Specialist at the Center for Leadership in Disability. She recently graduated from Georgia State University with a Master’s in Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling. Spenser received her Bachelor’s degree in Special Education from Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia. Before returning to Atlanta to pursue her Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling, Spenser worked as a Special Education teacher, focused specifically on students and families on the Autism Spectrum. Spenser’s professional interests include disability law and advocacy, family dynamics and counseling, as well as assistive technology, sexual health, and inclusive post-secondary education.

Andrew Roach is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services in the College of Education & Human Development.

 

 

 

Niklas Vollmer is an interdisciplinary artist and mediamaker who teaches film/video production and directs GSU’s Peripheral Visions, a new media research “hive” that employs innovative technological strategies to connect students, faculty and community collaborators on local, regional and global scales. His research and teaching interests include: experimental, avant-garde, and nonfiction theory and practice; community-based and subject participatory mediamaking; the essay film; video art; personal narrative and diary films; domestic ethnography, home movies and the representation of family; performance of masculinity; and the environmental documentary.

Ramatu Muhammad is the Community Services Specialist for the Center for Leadership in Disability (CLD) at the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. She joined the CLD in 2015 and supports center in family related projects: she is IDEAL Program Parent Coordinator, Family Faculty for the GALEND Program, coordinates the Family Mentoring Experience for Emory MPH students, and the the Family Liaison for GAIPSEC where she coordinated the Parent Webinars series.

Cara Davis serves as the Academic Access Coordinator for the IDEAL Program, which is a Post-Secondary Program for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. In this role, she assists students in reaching their academic and professional goals. She also works with university instructors to ensure inclusive efforts in academic and social settings. Cara is a Certified Young Adult Educator for the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS).

 

Ellie Potts is a fellow with GaLEND, an interdisciplinary leadership training program that allows emerging professionals to work together in a collaborative environment to learn work and learn with and from individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. She is a first-year Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Master’s student at Georgia State University (GSU) and graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Mercer University in Macon, GA. She is a graduate research assistant in the Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy (IDEAL) program at GSU, which provides an immersive college experience for those students that have intellectual or developmental disabilities and are interested in creative media. Ellie leads the research team focused on job and industry standards for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are transitioning to the workforce. She also has developed and taught a self-advocacy curriculum and integrated a mindfulness course into supports for students with IDD.

Timothy Richardson

Ben Dell