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The  announced the renewal of its  for $3.1 million over the next five years.

Funded by the Health Resources Services Administration’s Maternal & Child Health Bureau (HRSA/MCHB), the purpose of LEND program is to provide graduate-level interdisciplinary training to improve the health and well-being of children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. The LEND program prepares trainees from diverse professional disciplines and backgrounds to assume leadership roles in their respective fields, to serve as agents of systems change, to conduct research in the field, and to provide responsive and exceptional interdisciplinary clinical services.

The LEND program comprises two distinct training programs. The Advanced Leadership Fellowship Program, a nine-month intensive program that trains interdisciplinary cohorts of fellows in the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to effect systems change, make policy recommendations, develop and support evidence-based services, and devise new training methods. The Leadership in Interdisciplinary Clinical Care Program trains clinicians at the masters or doctoral level in an array of clinical disciplines to provide evidence-based, family-centered, culturally competent care for children and their families, and to assume leadership roles in their work. The training is carried out in affiliated programs within UMass Medical School and the Graduate School of Nursing as well as in clinical training sites at Tufts Medical Center and Franciscan Children’s.

Carol Curtin, PhD, professor of family medicine & community health, and LEND program director and principal investigator, said, “We are delighted to be refunded for another five years and are proud of our LEND graduates who are at the table locally, regionally and nationally and part of critical conversations and efforts to improve services and supports for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. We look forward to continuing to train exemplary leaders and clinicians in the years that lie ahead.”

For more information about the Shriver Center LEND program, visit: