Episode 25 / Emerging Trends with Katherine Yoder MS, CFI

In this episode, Scott Modell, Ph.D. and Staci Whitney, LMSW are joined by Executive Director of the Adult Advocacy Centers, Katherine Yoder, MS, CFI. Katherine shares her experience as an individual with Autism and also discusses emerging trends she's recognized in the disability field.Katherine Yoder is a certified forensic interviewer and a person with disabilities herself. For more than 20 years she has worked with people with disabilities in various capacities, from direct care to investigating crimes against people with disabilities across the state of Ohio. She also served on the Mortality Review Committee for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. All of this work revealed the glaring gaps in the different systems when a crime is committed against a person with a disability. After co-authoring the Advanced Forensic Interviewing Individuals with Disabilities (Project FIND) protocol, Katherine founded the Adult Advocacy Centers (AACs) in March 2019 to serve crime victims with disabilities. Since then, she has co-authored the Project FIND Adapted protocol for individuals who do not speak and four AACs' ADEPT forensic interviewing protocols for crime victims with disabilities. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in social psychology from Park University and a Master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. She is a Nonviolence 365 Ambassador with the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Katherine has receved many awards, including the Equality in Advocacy Award from Ohio Victim Witness Association in 2018, the Social Justice Award from the Ohio Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission in 2021 and the Ohio Attorney General's Promising Practice Award in 2022. She was also a Diversability D-30 Disability Impact List Honoree for 2023. In 2023, the AACs were granted special consultative status to the United Nations, opening new doors to collaborations with international nonprofits, disability organizations and medical crisis responders around the world.