About

ACCESS is a place where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to thrive. 

Lindsey Oester (Oh-stir) is the director of ACCESS. She attended The University of California, Irvine where her passion and love for developmental psychology began. After graduating with degrees in Psychology and Social Behavior, and Cognitive Science, she accepted a position with UC Irvine as a Clinical Psychometrist. She spent several years conducting neuro-psychological research and behavioral assessments and became an approved researcher for UCLA, USC, UCSD and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She enjoyed her research position, but wanted to be more hands on in the healing process of psychology, so she studied and became a behavioral therapist for The Center for Autism and Related Disorders. She provided one-to-one developmental therapy to children with autism. As a therapist, Lindsey found that incorporating music and dance brought out the best progress in her clients. She won awards for her unique approach to therapeutic work. It was through her work as a therapist she was inspired to create the ACCESS Dance Program. 

A serendipitous meeting in 2012 with Jen Bradford, Artistic Director of Northern California Dance Conservatory, lead to the launch of ACCESS. Jen Bradford had always wanted to have an adaptive program at NCDC and Lindsey was getting back into the dance world with the goal of starting an adaptive dance program, and so ACCESS was born! Lindsey combines her favorite aspects from a variety of therapies and her experience as a dancer to create the ACCESS curriculum.

ACCESS has been given several awards for outstanding contributions to the disabled community including awards from the California State Legislature, ARC and Placer County. 

Lindsey is a native of Southern California where she studied classical ballet under Laurence Blake and Kristen Olsen-Potts. Lindsey received full scholarships to ballet schools across the country including The School of American Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet and American Ballet Theater. She has performed with many companies including Walt Disney Entertainment, Pasadena Dance Theater, Ballet Unlimited, The Joffrey Ballet Company, The Crystal Cathedral, Tokyo Disney Entertainment, Sacramento Contemporary Dance Theater and Buena Vista Entertainment. Lindsey has had a well-rounded entertainment career including movies, commercials and international print, commercial and runway modeling.