Dee Waddell, M.Ed., State Coordinator for IDEA Part C Consultant, leads Iowa's Early ACCESS system of early intervention for children, birth to three, with developmental delays and their families. Dee has been with the Department of Education for 26 years with a focus on early intervention, early childhood, and special education. She is active at the state and national level in the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children CEC).
Monica Garner is an experienced educator with over twenty years working in Early Childhood as a practitioner and administrator. Monica serves as the Iowa Head Start State Collaboration Office Director and facilitates connections and partnerships between Head Start agencies and state/local entities. She is also a professor with Des Moines Area Community College teaching CDA coursework for the Head Start and Child Care communities. Prior, Monica worked with Drake University Head Start instituting the Instructional Coaching program and the EHS-Child Care Partnership grant from their inception. Monica represents the Head Start and Early Childhood communities via representation on the IHSA Board, Early Childhood Iowa State committees, Child Development Coordinating Council, FaDSS Council, and the PBIS State Leadership team.
Betsy Lin is an administrative consultant at the Iowa Department of Education in the area of special education. She taught for over 13 years in special education preschool settings and has worked at the Department of Education for 11 years, previously in the area of early childhood special education. Her work has included Preschool SDI (Specially Designed Instruction) professional development and coaching, inclusion, assessment, IDEA monitoring and continuous improvement, and special education dispute resolution. She has a master’s degree in Special Education with an emphasis in early childhood.