WeSaid Speakers’ Bureau
The Speakers’ Bureau is a group of advocates that work for or partner with UMKC-IHD to offer their expertise and lived experience for a variety of speaking engagements.
Speakers
Click on the names below to learn about each speaker, including their professional history, topics of expertise and past speaking engagements.
Candace Cunningham
Candace Cunningham is a research aide in the Outreach Department at the Institute for Human Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the host of “Candace’s Corner”, a monthly podcast at UMKC-IHD through the WeSaid at the UCEDD. Candace works with individuals across the country coordinating the Self-Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center (SARTAC) Fellowships. She is a person with lived experience from Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She has a master’s degree in clinical rehabilitation counseling and started participating in advocacy efforts in 2006.
Nicole Noblet
Nicole Noblet is a visual artist and a published author. Nicole has taught writing classes to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and helped with other projects that used creativity and an artist’s eye. It is a priority to Nicole that people with disabilities live their best lives as defined by their own goals and interests. She hopes to support systemic change to that end.
Susan Parker
Susan Parker encourages advocacy through her daily work as a President of People First of Missouri, Vice President of the St. Charles People First Chapter. Susan is a SARTAC Fellow, an Ambassador of Charting the Life Course, founding member of the ‘WeSaid at the UCEED’ at UMKC-IHD. She was the Division of Developmental Disabilities Mental Health Champion. She is member of the St Louis Provider Gateway Coalition, and a member of Emmaus Homes’ Board. She is an inspiration to others. Susan has used her voice for over 19 years to create a lasting impact on Missouri Legislation regarding the “R” word, accessible parking signs, and allowing parents with a disability to have the right to raise their children successfully without harassment. Recently she spoke at Disability Rights Legislative Day about legislation that would provide Medicaid coverage for hearing aids and cochlear implants. Susan has dedicated her adult life to speaking up for others and advocating for their rights.
Skye VanLanduyt
Skye VanLanduyt works for UMKC-IHD within in the WeSaid at the UCEDD and is the featured host for the interview-format video series known as “Take Five with Skye.” Skye lives in Kansas City, Missouri and holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing from Baker University. She is currently earning a master’s degree at UMKC in Higher Education Administration. She has been an integral part in forming the WeSaid at the UCEDD, providing support through the speakers’ bureau and training with the WeSaid Academy. Outside of her efforts for UMKC-IHD, Skye loves singing, social justice, and advocacy work.
Christopher Robin Judson Worth
Christopher Robin Judson Worth was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1977. His family, though loving, put him into foster care due to hardships. While in foster care, he was also placed in a special school, where there was little to no academic focus, but the focus was primarily on functional skill-building and sheltered workshop simulated tasks. Chris literally spent time putting nuts on bolts and folding paper, while being timed.
In the summer of 1989, Chris was put up for adoption and was adopted by an upwardly mobile family in West Virginia. This adoption, like so many, probably, was a game-changer for Chris. Soon after moving to West Virginia, Chris was mainstreamed in the school system. This meant that Chris, who was ten-and-a-half when the adoption process started, and eleven by the time it ended, was placed in a second-grade classroom with modified time in the special education classroom. To make a long story short, Chris’s experience with his adopted parents and a few amazing teachers who believed in him laid the foundation for the life Chris is pursuing today.
Chris is a Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he studies the positive aspects of risk-taking and what creativity may or may not do to enhance a person’s positive risk. Chris’s first master’s and undergraduate degrees are in painting, and he still works creatively within his scholarly work and continues to create art whenever possible.
Christopher speaks on the topics of disability, disability culture, risk-taking, and creativity. Chris is a Missouri Mental Health Champion. He has abundant experience speaking locally, regionally, and nationally.
Connect with WeSaid
Interested in inviting one of the WeSaid Speakers to your event or becoming a speaker yourself? Contact the WeSaid team by clicking the button below.
