This past summer, the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities (MCDD) welcomed several talented trainees to work with our programs.
Greta Bauerle is a rising second-year law student at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
She worked 40 hours a week for eight weeks with Project HEAL (Health, Education, Advocacy, and Law).
Bauerle has worked for nearly six years in various positions across Kennedy Krieger Institute, which inspired her to attend law school. She hopes to work in special education law and advocacy.
Julie Gearty is a rising third-year law student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
Gearty worked 40 hours a week for 10 weeks with Project HEAL.
She developed an interest in special education law through her undergraduate work as a lab assistant in the Department of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University, researching language learning pathways in children with autism spectrum disorder. She hopes to pursue a career in health law.
Mariamawit Loulseged was a Maternal Child Health Careers/Research Initiatives for Student Enhancement - Undergraduate Program (MCHC/RISE-UP) scholar and recent graduate from Northeastern University.
She earned her undergraduate degree in health science, with minors in business administration and global health.
At Project HEAL, Loulseged worked to expand her health advocacy and equity knowledge for underrepresented individuals.
Kathryn Martin is a rising second-year law student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
She earned her undergraduate degree in political science at the University of South Carolina.Martin developed an interest in special education law through her volunteer experience with Kids Enjoy Exercise Now (KEEN) Greater D.C.-Baltimore, which provides free exercise programs for children with disabilities.
She worked 32 hours a week for 10 weeks with Project HEAL.
Biafra Okoronkwo was a MCHC/RISE-UP scholar and rising senior at Amherst College, concentrating in Middle Eastern studies and global health.
He completed a project focusing on suicidality in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and created strategies for training parents and caregivers in prevention and proper care.
Xueqi Qu is a Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, and is pursuing her master’s degree in public health.
She worked with MCDD for 15 hours a week for 20 weeks.
Qu earned her undergraduate degree at Peking University in China. She developed an interest in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities while conducting research on developmental delay in China. She plans to pursue a doctorate degree in the epidemiology of child health.
