Tamara Massey-Garrett is the Disability Services Manager of the Center for Disability Services at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) and has a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Services. She has 20 years of experience in disability services with an emphasis in providing accommodation and assistive technology services to college students with disabilities. Her past experiences include four years working in the field of vocational evaluation and rehabilitation counseling for veterans and high school students participating in TRIO programs at AUM. She’s collaborated with Auburn University on grants funded by the National Science Foundation for the AUM Alabama Alliance for Students with Disabilities – STEM program and currently for the AUM Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) program. In addition, she’s manages and coordinates a summer College Prep program with Easter Seals Central Alabama and the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services. She serves as state president of the Learning Disabilities Association of Alabama (LDA AL) and as past president of the Alabama Association on Higher Education and Disability (AL AHEAD). Ms. Massey-Garrett also regularly makes conference presentations for AL AHEAD, LDA AL, Pacific Rim Conference on Disability and Diversity, Auburn University Transition and Postsecondary Disability Training Institute.
Dr. Jendia Grissett has served as the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) from 2016 to the present. Prior to her appointment as Associate VPAA, Dr. Grissett served the University in the capacity of Dean and Chair the College of Education, as well as Institutional Effectiveness from 2007 – 2012. From 2012 – 2016, Dr. Grissett served as an Educational Administrator with the Alabama State Department of Education charged with Educator Assessment and Educator Preparation. Prior to her tenure with Faulkner, Dr. Grissett had 15 years experience as a clinical social worker and school social work practitioner. Dr. Grissett served as the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) past chair of Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults, and former consulting editor for Children & Schools. Dr. Grissett serves Faulkner and the higher education community as a SACSCOC and CAEP reviewer. Dr. Grissett earned the Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Troy University, the Master of Social Work from The University of Alabama, the Master of Science in Education from Capella University, and Doctor of Education from Alabama State University.
Pat became a member of LDA in the mid 1980’s. She served as president for her local and state (Alabama) affiliates and continues to be an active LDA Board Member. She is the parent of an adult son with LD/ADHD. Prior to her LDA focus Pat earned her MLA from Peabody College (Vanderbilt University), her Graduate Certification for Medical School Libraries from Emory University and served as a medical school librarian at the University of Kentucky’s Chandler’s College of Medicine Library. She later earned her M.A. in Special Education with a Depth Study in Learning Disabilities from the University of Alabama. She served as Director of Disability Services at Faulkner University, Montgomery, AL from 1994-2016. While at Faulkner University, she served on the Board of Directors and as president of the Alabama Association of Higher Education and Disability (AL AHEAD) and on the University of Alabama’s Advisory Committee for the Southeastern Conference and Symposium on ADHD 2006-2016. In earlier years she served as a higher education representative on the Alabama Commission on Higher Education’s Ad Hoc Committee on Vocational Rehabilitation Assistance for three years.
Because her early active participation in LDA proved to be as integral as her graduate studies in her quest for appropriate education services for her son, Pat continues to mentor parents, grandparents, and students on transition issues with emphasis on federal statutes, case law, institution policy and appropriate documentation of disabilities. Both Pat and her son earned a Bachelor of Art degree from the University of Alabama
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