2025 National Research Consortium Annual Meeting

Last month, on October 6, 2025, the National Research Consortium on Mental Health in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities held its seventh annual meeting. The meeting was hosted by the consortium’s partner, Kennedy Krieger Institute. Photos and videos are available at the bottom of this page. 

NRC Director Joan Beasley, PhD opened the meeting with an overview of the consortium’s history and structure. Luke Kalb, PhD, the outgoing chair, introduced the current chair, Luke Reynard, PhD. Reynard presented on the NRC’s influence, demonstrated by the number of citations that have been generated from NRC funded projects.

Tawara Goode, the Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Cultural and Linguistic Competence, led a facilitated discussion, Advancing MH-IDD Research in the Current Sociocultural, Political, and Economic Environment: Challenges and Opportunities.  

This was followed by Jessica Kramer, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Florida and Micah Peace Urquilla, Research and Training Assistant, University of New Hampshire’s presentation Using Strength Based Practices to Build Capacity for Participatory Research.

During lunch, the winners of the YAI MH-IDD Poster Session call, Dr. Miriam Heyman and Dr. Anne Valentine, presented their poster Enhancing maternal care for women with IDD: a toolkit for doulas and healthcare providers.

The next presentation of the day was, The Importance of Eliciting Self-report When Assessing Psychiatric Conditions in Adults with ID. This was presented by Susan Havercamp, PhD, Director of Health Promotion and Healthcare Parity, The Nisonger Center, The Ohio State University, & Marc J. Tassé, PhD, Director, The Nisonger Center, The Ohio State University.

Dr. Jessica Schlutter and Whitt Downing, who were funded during the NRC’s 2025 Call for Proposals, presented their project Development and Evaluation of the We All Matter Peer Virtual Support Group: Implementation and Resource Guides, & Evaluation Tools.

The final block of presentations of the day were on the NRC’s currently funded projects:

• Determining the Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of an Online, Self-guided, Single-Session ACT Program to Improve Quality of Life for Autistic Adults Experiencing Mental Health Concerns – Ty Aller, PhD, Utah State University
• Promoting Self-Determination Using Psychotherapy – Richard Chapman, PhD Virginia Commonwealth University
• Survey of Psychological Training in Autism and Intellectual Disability – Amy Keefer, PhD Kennedy Krieger Institute
• Promoting postpartum mental health for women with IDD: A strengths-based contextual study – Miriam Heyman, PhD, & Anne Valentine, PhD Brandeis University 

Dr. Reynard closed the meeting with a forward looking discussion of the next year’s plans for the NRC.