• Graduate Dean’s Citation for Outstanding Dissertation: University of Northern Colorado, 2019
• Foresight Award, Usher Syndrome Coalition, 2017

Dr. Lanya (Lane) McKittrick is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Special Education as part of the College of Education, Health and Human Services, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. McKittrick is the Director of the Idaho Program for Children and Youth with Deaf Blindness as part of the Center on Disabilities and Human Development. She completed her PhD in Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado. Her special education research interests include collaboration and family-professional partnerships; services and supports for students who are deafblind and their families; self-determination; student-led IEP’s; post-secondary transition; inclusion; and disability studies. Her research is rooted in her personal experience as a mom to four sons, including two who have Usher syndrome, the leading genetic cause of deafblindness. Dr. McKittrick is actively involved in the Deafblind community as the Chair of the Usher Syndrome Coalition, Founder of the Hear See Hope Foundation, and Founder of Lane of Inquiry, Deafblind Education Research and Family Support.

• Family-Professional Partnerships
• Deafblindness
• Collaboration in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Process
• Self-determination
• Student involvement in the IEP
• Transition

• Explore deafblind parent experiences with early educational transitions.
• Explore family perceptions of early deafblind student involvement in the IEP.

• McKittrick, L. L. (2022). Parents of children who are deafblind face challenges in fostering collaboration within individualized education program teams. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196221127103