Staff Spotlight: Brandy James

Briefly introduce yourself and talk about your role at the Sonoran Center.

Well, I’m Brandy James. I’ve been with the Sonoran Center for almost three weeks now. My position is in community education and outreach. My role is new to the Sonoran Center. I will be assisting with the development of online learning and community-facing professional development: things such as transition to supported employment, the Transition Ahead Roundtable program, and enhancing some of the early-intervention programs (which is my background).

Can you go into more detail about the programs you’re working on?

I’m working with Heather Wolff-Holstein on supported employment. We’re developing training webinars and modules to assist the vocational rehabilitation workforce and job coaches. We’re trying to develop modules that support their learning to really engage best practices around job coaching around the state. We’re trying to get more initiatives out there—to get those best practices out, within job coaching. We really want to enhance what supported employment can do, what it should look like, and how to assist both employers and employees to create a successful approach to supported employment.

Who are you working with?

We’re training the job coaches: those that work alongside those individuals with disabilities in the workforce. We’re training the job coaches to develop the skills that they need to be successful in those employment situations.

Looking back, what inspired you to start doing the work you do?

I started out, after graduating from college, as a special education high school teacher in Northern California. I worked with our transitional and vocational team at the high school, trying to set up employment for some of my high school students. Then, after that position, I ended up in another teaching role with elementary-aged students with autism. That’s been my niche ever since. I’m the parent of two exceptional children—one who is 25 now and went through college with some assistance due to some learning disabilities that weren’t diagnosed until later on. Looking at how his college experience has been, I want to do everything I possibly can to assist other students, at the college level and early intervention. My doctoral work is in early childhood and early intervention services. My other child led me down that path of early childhood, working with children between birth to age three, in the home setting of developmental disabilities.

How do these experiences inform the work that you do here?

For me, it’s really about looking at lived experiences, and asking various populations what it is that can better what they do day-to-day. In a work or in a classroom setting, it’s giving them all the tools that are out there. I know that, for my own children, it was somewhat of a challenge to get everyone on the same page as far as supports in education. That’s been a really big need for me: to find those avenues where I can speak to that for other children and families.

How do you like working at the Sonoran Center? What makes it unique?

I love that there are so many avenues for research and applied work. I was telling my family the other day that I’ve never really been in a position where I can use my degrees in counseling, gerontology, and early childhood—I’ve never been in a position where I can use all three! I get to do that here, which is a phenomenal experience for me. I’m excited to see where I can take this.

What plans do you have for your time here, if any?

I’d really like to focus on supported employment. I haven’t touched on that in a while in my career.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I get to do the research side, but I also get to take the research and make it into something applied for the community—something that’s community-facing for educators, practitioners and families. That doesn’t always happen in academia and research. Being able to develop something in an applied way is exciting.

Any advice for people who might be interested in going into your field?

Find something that you’re passionate about, that you can make an impact with, and really enjoy it and build from that. I have been very fortunate to be in a position where I could find avenues such as this to really give back to the community, and that’s been exciting for me.

Anything else you’d like to mention?

I’m really enjoying the Tucson weather!