Faculty Success: Dr. Melissa Bittner
Congratulations to Associate Professor Melissa Bittner of the Kinesiology PETE (Physical Education Teacher Education) program was awarded a four year Collaboration and Research Education (CARE) from the US Department of Education. Dr. Bittern’s co-PIs include Belinda Daughrity and Alaine Ocampo of the CHHS Speech Language Pathology Department and Amanda Young, also from Kinesiology. Dr. Bittner’s work focuses on adapted physical education for children with disabilities and this grant will focus on recruiting and training CSULB students to work in this field. The US is experiencing critical shortages of personnel to meet the needs of students with disabilities, including those trained to serve students with high-intensity needs who are culturally competent; these shortages include both adapted physical education (APE) and speech-language pathology (SLP). The overall goal of this proposed project, Project CARE is to prepare scholars at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) with the evidence-based necessary skills and knowledge to address the social, emotional, physical, and linguistic needs of children ages birth to 21 with high-intensity needs. Project CARE scholars will be expected to attain over 600 hours working with individuals with disabilities and the grant provides support for these efforts.
