🍎 Thank You for Joining Us!

To all the paraeducators, teachers, related service providers, and administrators who joined us for the July 2025 KATC Educator Institute—thank you! Your energy, expertise, and commitment to supporting autistic students helped create an inspiring and impactful two days of learning.

We’re grateful for the thoughtful conversations, shared strategies, and collaborative spirit that made this year’s Institute so memorable.

We’re already looking ahead to the 2027 Educator Institute! Stay tuned for updates as we continue building dynamic opportunities to connect, learn, and grow together.

Stay curious, stay connected—and thank you for making a difference.

Join a dynamic community of paraeducators, teachers, related service providers, and administrators for an immersive 2-day conference dedicated to enhancing your skills and strategies for supporting autistic students. Dive into a variety of sessions tailored to meet the needs of students from early childhood/preschool to age 21, and discover innovative approaches that will transform your educational practices.

Don't miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and grow with fellow professionals committed to making a difference!

Autism Educator Institute Event Details

Who: YOU - paraeducators, teachers, related service providers, administrators who support autistic students

What: Autism Educator Institute 

When: July 8-9, 2025

Where: 450 N. Whittington Pkwy. Louisville, KY 40222  

UofL Conference Center located on UofL's Shelby Campus: Founders Union Building 

Registration Cost: 

Classified Staff $100*     

Certified Staff $150     

College Student $75     

University of Louisville Staff & Faculty $75

*Caregivers are encouraged to attend and may also register at the Classified Staff rate of $100

No meals or other travel expenses are included in the registration cost. For information about overnight accommodations/lodging CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE to find details about parking, the event space, and other helpful information.  

Emily Rubin, MS, CCC-SLP is the Director of Communication Crossroads in Palm Desert, California, a private practice specialized in providing professional learning focused on helping families, caregivers, and educators create positive learning environments focused on relationships and an appreciation of the neurodiversity of children. She is a speech-language pathologist who is passionate about the relationship between social emotional engagement and the development of language, learning, and well-being. 

She is a co-author of the SCERTS Model and a co-developer of the Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS). These approaches provide a framework for social emotional engagement and learning that are: 

1) ecologically valid to the demands of achieving academic standards, 

2) sensitive to the unique needs of students with social learning differences such as autism, and 

3) can serve as a universal design for learning that benefits all of students and young children in order to promote positive long-term outcomes. 

She lectures internationally and provides ongoing technical assistance to school systems and other agencies that care for children and their families.

A Safe Harbor: Anchoring Strategies for Classrooms with Autistic Students

Bev Harp, MSW & Erin Fitzgerald MEd

Bev Harp, MSW, is Project Director for Innovative Supports for Autistic Workers (ISAW), a project of the Human Development Institute (HDI) and is self-advocate faculty for LEND at the University of Kentucky. 

Bev is an autistic self-advocate who has presented at national conferences for APSE, AHEAD, TASH, and many other organizations. Bev is co-chair of the Kentucky Advisory Council on Autism and co-founder of Kentucky’s first autistic self-advocacy group. She holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Kentucky.

Erin Fitzgerald, MEd, works for the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky. She coordinates the College and Career Studies (CCS) program, a Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary (CTP) program supporting students with intellectual disability who are attending college and exploring career interests. 

Erin is also a self-advocate and cartoonist. She often uses the moniker “A Girl Named Earl” in her creative work, which includes a single-panel series called SPECTRUM, a cartoon mostly about neurodivergence and queerness.  Erin currently splits her time between Louisville and Lexington and helps coordinate the Kentuckiana Autistic Spectrum Alliance (KASA), an advocacy group for people in the Kentuckiana area.

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