An eUpdate message from the Leadership Team
Center Director Cathy McLeod
Hello, welcome, and best holiday wishes to all of our stakeholders. PEPNet 2 staff look forward to working with you in the coming new year.
You are a diverse group that includes Vocational Rehabilitation specialists, parents, students, teachers, disability services coordinators, higher education administrators, and school counselors. You have many varied needs and perspectives, and you are located throughout the 50 states, and the U.S. Territories and Protectorates.
There is one thing however that all of you have in common: Your vision for your students, coworkers, and consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing. You want them to be successful, and to achieve their goals and dreams. PEPNet 2 looks forward to collaborating with you to make this vision a reality.
This December edition is the second of our monthly eUpdates. In this issue the four PEPNet 2 Associate Directors and I describe our areas of responsibility and how we plan to meet project goals. See the AD's articles below.
Also be sure to click here to meet our current staff.
Although PEPNet 2 is only two months old, we already have some notable achievements:
- First and foremost we selected a name for our new organization. We wanted to build on the reputation and name recognition of PEPNet, but wanted a name that signaled our evolution from a group of regional centers to a truly national organization. Our new name, PEPNet 2, expressed the upgrade.
- At the October PEPNet 2 Kickoff Meeting in Washington, DC the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) clearly articulated that a unified, national organization - a "PEPNet without borders" - is the best way to meet the needs of our stakeholders. A single national center can more effectively and efficiently develop capacity building strategies for institutions.
- The PEPNet 2 Leadership Team met in Austin, Texas to draft our Strategic Plan outlining how we will meet the goals and objectives of our proposal to OSEP. We are developing a Needs Assessment to meet new OSEP guidelines.
- The Needs Assessment will collect information to identify factors that impact student success, enrollment, retention, and graduation rates.
Breaking news!
Information about the PEPNet Training Institute at AHEAD 2012 in New Orleans is now posted. Call for papers deadline is February 3, 2012. Please click PEPNet 2 Training Institute.
PEPNet 2 Director Cathy McLeod leads the PEPNet 2 project from her office at the California State University-Northridge.
Personnel Development: Associate Director Mary Morrison
PEPNet 2 will continue to provide Personnel Development (PD) programs to national, regional, state, and local stakeholders. These trainings will provide tools to build the capacity of stakeholder programs to work effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Training opportunities, both face-to-face and online, will combine the knowledge assembled by PEPNet over the past 15 years with the up-to-date evidence and best practices PEPNet 2 develops. The PD team will design and create customized online training modules for key stakeholders, such as Vocational Rehabilitation coordinators, transition specialists, students, parents, teachers and others. PEPNet 2 will facilitate national communities of practice to support the adoption of new ideas, technologies, and resources that facilitate program capacity building.
Online PD materials will be available in multiple formats anytime, anywhere. A team with expertise in pertinent topical areas and awareness of the needs of the target audience will produce trainings in cooperation with the TM team to ensure best practices and fully accessible formats are utilized.
PEPNet 2 Associate Director of Personnel Development (PD) Mary Morrison supervises the PD Team and manages production and updating of all PD products from her office at the University of Montana, Missoula.
Technical Assistance: Associate Director Bambi Riehl
The Technical Assistance (TA) team is your anytime/anywhere link to all of the resources available from PEPNet 2. We provide continually updated, evidence-based information that can help resolve accommodation issues, smooth transitions to postsecondary life, guide development of institutional policies, and ensure national consistency in best practices that can lead to successful education or employment outcomes for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Contact us to receive high quality, timely, consistent answers to your questions. You can access our resources and/or communicate with us via email: help@pepnet.org.
Join the PEPNetPost listserv: www.pepnet.org/reslistserv.php
PEPNet's Listserv delivers useful information and discussions for professionals working for and with students who are deaf or hard of hearing in secondary and postsecondary environments. If current posts don't have the information you need, the PEPNet Listserv archives or Past Posts may provide the answer. If you still haven't found the answer, you can start a new discussion on the Listserv-the nearly 900 subscribers may have solutions for you.
In addition, we are expanding TA delivery modes, and you will soon find us on Facebook, and Twitter. We'll also have online chat up-and-running soon.
The TA staff works closely with all PEPNet 2 teams, and uses independent content experts when necessary to be sure we are responding to your needs in helpful, thorough ways.
PEPNet 2 Associate Director Bambi Riehl leads the Technical Assistance team from her office at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Technology and Media: Associate Director Elise Knopf
The Technology and Media (TM) team provides communication technology that enables PEPNet 2 to integrate resources into a national compendium of trainings, products, services, and organizations that can help stakeholders meet their goals and increase the capacity of their programs. This enhanced communication system spans state and regional boundaries to make PEPNet 2 "PEPNet without borders."
We are always on the alert for new devices, or upgrades to existing technology, but many communication tools we use and share with our stakeholders are mainstream-and often free-resources: the Internet, email, Instant Messaging, smart phones, and videophones. We will add enhanced mobile device access soon and put PEPNet 2 on Facebook and other social media sites. We evaluate the tools we use to ensure they utilize evidence-based practices.
We maintain and house PEPNet's Internet portal, www.pepnet.org which links stakeholders to virtually all of the growing array of PEPNet 2 materials, including Technical Assistance (TAD) information, Personnel Development (PD) trainings, archived and live webcasts, professional summits, and other resources we and others have created. New webcasts and trainings we upload are created with American Sign Language (ASL) as the source language, English narration, captions and transcripts to meet the varied language preferences of our stakeholders.
To support the Evidence Synthesis team and to document our contacts and other activities, we maintain and manage PEPNet 2 internal databases.
Finally, the TM team delivers timely PEPNet 2 news--like the eUpdate you are reading-to stakeholders.
PEPNet 2 Associate Director of Technology and Media Elise Knopf leads the TM team from her office at Saint Paul College, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Evidence Synthesis: Associate Director Dr. Stephanie Cawthon
The Evidence Synthesis (ES) component is new in PEPNet 2. In the past, PEPNet conducted needs assessments only at the beginning of each five-year grant cycle. In the new grant OSEP requires PEPNet 2 to continuously monitor stakeholder needs throughout the five-year cycle to ensure that our products, resources and best practices evolve as stakeholders' needs change.
The PEPNet 2 ES team will establish baselines and use statistical methods to better understand the activities and services that lead to student success in enrollment, retention, graduation, job placement, and employment outcomes.
The ES team's first task is to develop a comprehensive needs assessment instrument that will provide baseline needs data and track needs changes throughout the five-year cycle. The information collected will inform and shape the Technical Assistance and Dissemination, Personnel Development, and Technology and Media PEPNet 2 develops and delivers to stakeholders throughout the life of the grant.
PEPNet 2 Associate Director Dr. Stephanie Cawthon leads the Evidence Synthesis team from her office at the University of Texas at Austin.
