Find an advocate to
fit your family

Ashley Traylor she/her

Special Education Advocate

I am a non-attorney special education advocate with a master’s degree in special education and nearly two decades of experience supporting students with disabilities and their families. My background includes work as a special education teacher, education consultant, and parent advocate, which gives me a strong understanding of both the school and family sides of the IEP process. I support families with IEPs, 504 plans, evaluations, eligibility, behavior plans, discipline concerns, transition planning, and parent participation in meetings. My goal is to help families feel prepared, informed, and confident while working collaboratively with school teams to address the student’s individual needs. I am also a parent of a child with disabilities, so I understand how emotional and overwhelming the process can feel. I believe families deserve clear information, practical support, and someone beside them who can help translate the paperwork, organize the concerns, and keep the focus on the child. My advocacy style is calm, collaborative, and solution-focused. I help families understand their rights, ask meaningful questions, review documents, prepare for meetings, and communicate concerns clearly and productively.

Paige Ryan

Caregiver Coach

I am a pediatric physical therapist and caregiver coach with over a decade of experience working with children with disabilities, neurodivergent profiles, and complex medical needs. I founded Foundation First Physical Therapy specifically because I kept watching families navigate impossibly complex systems alone — and I wanted to be the person in their corner. My advocacy work lives at the intersection of clinical expertise and systems navigation. I help families understand their child's PT needs, push back on insurance denials, navigate DME and equipment authorization, prepare for IEP meetings from a motor and functional perspective, and make sense of the medical language and recommendations being thrown at them by a team of specialists. What I bring that most advocates don't is the clinical background to speak the language of the providers AND the ability to translate it for families in a way that actually makes sense. I have sat in IEP meetings, written medical necessity letters, filed insurance appeals, and coached caregivers through some of the most overwhelming moments of their lives. I work with families of children with cerebral palsy, autism, rare and complex diagnoses, and medically complex profiles. I am based in Chelmsford, MA but offer virtual support nationwide through my caregiver coaching practice.

Quanae Jefferson

Special Education Advocate

Mother to a medically complex five year old and I’ve been advocating since day one. I’ve helped not only my son but several other families as early as helping a family while my son was in NICU before he was a month old. I’ve founded a nonprofit in Louisiana Empowered By Empathy dedicated to helping families of medically complex children. As my knowledge and skill set grows I hope to help more people. I also plan to enroll in classes this coming fall to a certified/ licensed peer support specialist

Kathleen Skeins

Diagnosis & Healthcare Advocate

TBI navigation and caregiving isn't explained in the hospital. I do that here. I'm Kathleen Skeins, Board Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA) and wife of a severe traumatic brain injury survivor. I teach TBI caregivers what no one has time to explain: the medical terms, the decisions, the logistics, the parts nobody prepares you for. No recovery promises. No timelines. Just what you need to know, explained plainly, by someone who's lived it. I know it may feel like it, but you are not alone.

Emily O'Sullivan

Early Intervention & Infant Mental Health Specialist, Grief Coach

I am a pediatric occupational therapist for 16+ years, trauma-informed grief/parent coach, infant mental health specialist, and certified lactation counselor. I have lived experience as a NICU/medical parent x2, rare diagnosis parent, and bereaved parent. I am passionate about helping families navigate their early experiences with their babies, build bonds and attachment, and manage their own mental health through the hardships of medical parenting, diagnoses, or traumas. I meet families, primarily mothers, virtually or in-person locally.

Jamie Kappelmann

Special Education Advocate

Special needs mom to two girls. Both with rare genetic conditions. One by neurological requiring complete care and one with low vision condition.

Rebeka Acosta she/her

Pediatric Healthcare Advocate

Kathlyn Roffina

Special Education Advocate

I have a physical disability and have lived this life for 31 years. My son and husband have different medical complexities and have been thrown into navigating everything as a parent. I would love to help you feel less alone and help you thrive again.

Heidi Martin RN, BSN, LAS

Prenatal Diagnosis & NICU Parent Advocate

As the Trauma Informed Perinatal Case Manager for Journey of a Lifetime (JOL), I have 24 years of nursing experience with 20 years of that experience being in a high level NICU. I am also the mother to a special needs child with a rare genetic diagnosis known as Mowat-Wilson Syndrome. I understand the medical and nursing aspects of a perinatal diagnosis, as well as the parental journey, the NICU Journey, and all aspects of advocating for a child with complex medical needs. As a faith based Christian non-profit, all services are offered at no cost to clients and provided regardless of one’s faith.

Tina Ayhan

Diagnosis & Healthcare Advocate

I had no experience with speacial needs and had to learn the hard way. My daughter has CP, epilepsy, global development delay. Had surgeries, had status epilepticus, stayed in hospitals for months. Learned to advocate for a non-verbal child while caring for two other kids one younger one older. Later went back to school and got my LMSW degree and now working for LCSW. Working in a psychiatric hospital while raising kids and managing being a full time assistant to my daughter with disabilities.