Scholarships and Family Stipends

We have two options for family/self-advocate stipends for this event. (Stipends are not available for professionals receiving CEUs). 

1. F2F stipends are available for families and youth up to age 21 with any type of special needs, disability, and/or chronic illness. Call 866.931.1110 to apply for this option.
2. The Arc of Illinois Consumer Stipends are available for parents of adult children over age 21 with developmental disabilities only. Call 815.464.1832 to apply for this option. 

Robert H. Farley, Jr., Attorney at Law of Naperville, Illinois, is one of the leading attorneys in the United States as he has successfully filed 7 Federal Class Action Lawsuits in the last decade to secure funding for services and protect the legal rights for persons with disabilities, including persons with mental health conditions. In January 2018, a Class Action Settlement (Consent Decree) was entered in Federal Court in Chicago, Illinois, N.B. v. Norwood, which will provide Mental Health services to all Medicaid eligible children under the age of 21 in the State of Illinois. It is anticipated that as the Implementation Plan is both developed and carried out, approximately 100,000 children will be receiving community based services.

Kristin Hartsaw, MPH, MCHES is the Director of Training and Technical Assistance with the Federation on Human Services Reform.  In this role, she develops and conducts training programs including Making the Connection: Accessing Public Benefits, Cultural Competency, and Mental Health First Aid.  She has provided enrollment assistance to families applying for health coverage and served on the State of Illinois training team to deliver Health Insurance Navigator/Assister training. Ms. Hartsaw currently serves as the State Team Lead for the SOAR initiative, a SAMHSA Best Practice Model working to increase access to disability benefits for persons who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Prior to her current role, she worked for fifteen years in public health.   

Kimberly Haynes, Illinois Family 2 Family Federation For Children's Mental Health

Tila Mims, Family Voices, Inc.                                                                                                                                  Family Advocates Panel

Claudia Partida, Hope for Hemophelia

Three Illinois family leaders will share how their experiences as parents of children with special health care needs led them to become advocates for other families. They will discuss the importance of family involevment, supporting children and youth to develop self-advocacy skills, and effective ways to encourage underserved families to be family leaders.

Katie Hench is the co-founder of Infiniteach, a company that develops mobile apps for people with autism and other developmental disabilities. Katie is a former Special Education teacher and has provided autism trainings to parents and educators in countries around the world. Katie's younger brother, diagnosed with autism at the age of 6, inspires the work she does.

Molly Hoffman is the Associate Director of Care Coordination at DSCC working with the Core and Home Care Programs throughout the state of Illinois. Molly is a Pediatric Advanced Practice Nurse. She obtained her bachelors and masters in nursing from OSF Saint Francis College of Nursing in Peoria. Molly has been in her role at DSCC for over 2 years. Prior to coming to DSCC, Molly was working at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria practicing at the Children's Hospital of Illinois in a child abuse clinic. As a nurse Molly worked in quality improvement, pediatrics, and the emergency department.

Lally Daley Hotchkiss's passion for autism includes both research and practice. Prior to helping found Infiniteach, Lally worked as a behavior therapist in an outpatient healthcare center with children with ASD from ages 2-17. She provided individual behavior therapy, social skills groups, and parent trainings for newly diagnosed families. Additionally, Lally worked a number of research teams while at DePaul. Her own research interests focused on the impact of culture in regards to diagnosing ASD.

Tom Jerkovitz, M.P.A., C.P.A. was appointed Executive Director of the University of Illinois-Chicago's Division of Specialized Care for Children (UIC-DSCC) on November 16, 2009. Mr. Jerkovitz gained extensive knowledge and administrative experience with large, complex children's health programs through his long career in Illinois State government. He served in the Governor's Office as Senior Policy Advisor for Health and Human Services. In addition, Mr. Jerkovitz worked in the Governor's Bureau of the Budget as the Division Chief for the Medical, Child Welfare and Health and Human Services Programs with responsibility for policy direction and fiscal management. He also served as the Executive Director of the Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (ICHIP), a high risk health insurance pool which had an annual expense of $150 million and provided coverage for more than 16,000 individuals. Immediately before joining UIC-DSCC, Mr. Jerkovitz was the Director of Finance for Health Alliance Medical Plans, Inc.

Sherri Schneider, President of Family Benefit Solutions, Inc., QDDP, and the mother of a child with special needs, has been tirelessly dedicated to helping individuals with special needs and their families. Her career began as a social worker in a CILA, where she helped those with developmental disabilities acquire the government benefits they so desperately needed, including SSI, Medicaid and food stamps. She helped launch one of the first CLF facilities funded under a Medicaid waiver. Sherri now meets with families to thoroughly assess their situations and pursue appropriate benefit assistance programs by personally guiding them through the application process. Families and professionals find her in-service expertise to be invaluable as they attempt to navigate the government benefit arena.

John Spears spent 32 years training the caseworkers of the State of Illinois in medical, SNAP and TANF programs. Starting as a caseworker, John was promoted to trainer, training supervisor, outreach coordinator and finally retired from HFS (the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services) as Bureau Chief of Eligibility Integrity.