January 14, 2026 (Silver Spring, MD)
Ceremony to take place at the 150th AAIDD Annual Meeting in June 2026.
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) is pleased to announce and congratulate those who have been selected to receive awards of the Association in 2026. Each year, AAIDD honors select individuals, organizations, or media who have made outstanding contributions to the field. A call for award nominations is issued in the fall of each year and awards are presented at the annual meeting of the Association.
The 2026 AAIDD awards recognizing outstanding contributions or special achievement are:
Early Career Award
Lauren Bruno, PhD, University of Kansas
Education Award
Karrie Shogren, PhD, FAAIDD, University of Kansas
Full Community Inclusion Award
Our Place of New Trier, Illinois
Historic Preservation Award
Laurel Daen, PhD, University of Notre Dame
Humanitarian Award
Sharon Gomez, FAAIDD, Evergreen Life Services
International Award
Mayumi Hagiwara, PhD, San Francisco State University
Leadership Award
Erik Carter, PhD, FAAIDD, Baylor University
Media Award
Natty [Short Film], The Natalie Project
Policy Award
Gary LaVigna, PhD & Thomas Willis, PhD, Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis
Research Award
Giulia Balboni, PhD, FAAIDD, University of Bologna
Service to the Association Award
Jean Phelps, MSW, FAAIDD, Incompass Human Services, Inc.
Service to the Field Award
Katie Arnold, PhD, FAAIDD, Our Place of New Trier
Special Award
Piyush Mishra, MTech, University of Illinois Chicago
Student Award
Christopher Worth, MEd, University of Missouri St. Louis
Awardees will be honored at the 150th AAIDD Annual Meeting to be held June 22-24, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Founded in 1876, AAIDD is the oldest professional association concerned with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Learn more about the organization at http://www.aaidd.org