Mariana Ortiz
Mariana Ortiz
Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities
University of Montana, MT
Mariana Ortiz is a Georgia State University Psychology student. She is a GaLEND (Leadership in Education and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities) fellow for the 2018-2019 school year as a family advocate. Mariana has a younger sister with a developmental disability and hopes to help others like her sister. She has had experience working with Latino families with children with autism through her work at the Marcus Autism Center in the Educational Sciences Research Center. During her time at the Marcus Autism Center, Mariana worked in the CITAS program, a support group for the Latina mothers of children with autism and she also translated materials and resources for Marcus. Mariana has worked with Brenda Liz Muñoz at the Latino Community of Practice in the Center for Leadership in Disability to engage Latino families to learn more about resources for their children with developmental disabilities. She’s become certified as a bilingual Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor and will be facilitating mental health awareness trainings in English and Spanish in Georgia. In the future, she hopes to earn a master’s in occupational therapy and work with kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities while pushing towards increasing cultural competency in healthcare.