CARE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Clinical Psychologist
- Member of the Find the Piece Board
Dr. Kerri Wright is a clinical psychologist who specializes in psycho-educational and neuropsychological assessment as well as providing therapeutic support to children and adolescents with developmental disabilities and their families. She completed her doctoral program at Antioch New England Graduate School and was an intern at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center on the Traumatic Brain Injury Unit. After working as a School Psychologist in Rutland, Vermont for 9 years, Dr. Wright pursued an advanced certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorders from the Vermont Higher Education Collaborative through Johnson State College, just prior to moving to North Carolina. She was the Autism Specialist for New Hanover County Schools for 8 years while she was building her private practice. Dr. Wright has also worked in a juvenile detention center, an inpatient setting, as well as in a residential setting with children and adolescents with a variety of diagnoses.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Find the Piece Board
Jamie H. Conrad is the mother of 14-year-old twin boys, Will and Ryan Conrad. Both boys were born almost four months early and spent the first few months of their life in the NICU at Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, NC. Will has since been diagnosed with Auditory Neuropathy, Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome, as well as autism spectrum disorder. Will and Ryan are in the 8th grade, their last year of middle school, and are looking forward to their upcoming high school years. Jamie and her family currently reside in Lincolnton, NC and have benefited greatly from the many relationships they have had the opportunity to establish throughout the country with others who have shared in similar journeys. Jamie is excited to meet other families through Find the Piece.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Find the Piece Board
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Founder
- Co - Chair of the NC Early Hearing Detection & Intervention
Johnnie Sexton, Au.D., has worked with children who are deaf and hard of hearing for almost 4 decades. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from East Carolina University and his Au.D. Degree from A. T. Still University/Arizona Health Sciences. Dr. Sexton has focused throughout his career on pediatric/educational audiology service development, implementation and management and served on a team to design the early intervention system for audiology in North Carolina (including the newborn hearing-screening program) from 1999-2001. He has devoted his energy in recent years to redefining counseling for families with children who have hearing challenges and the professionals who provide services for them. Dr. Sexton created the nonprofit agency, The CARE Project, serving as Executive Director, for the advancement of family, professional and pre-professional training opportunities in emotional/adjustment counseling.
Throughout his career, Dr. Sexton has been very involved in state licensure under 5 Governors in NC with a clear focus on making sure that the consumer of speech and hearing services are protected from unethical and illegal practice. The North Carolina Speech, Hearing and Language Association has twice awarded Dr. Sexton the State Clinical Achievement Award, in 1996 for his pioneering work in educational audiology and in 2017 for his pioneering work in emotional support for families.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Find the Piece Board
Kimberly Bigelow Stokes is a graduate of UNCW, with a degree in Special Education and has been a Special Educator for 30 years. At this time, Kimberly is a lead teacher within New Hanover County Schools for the Transition Program for Young Adults (TPYA), a program for 18-22 year olds. Her goal is to teach students with varying challenges that they can become successful and independent young adults.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Find the Piece Board
Kristin Porcelli, M.S. CCC/SLP: Kristin has a B.S degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Appalachian State University in Boone NC and a Masters Degree in Speech Pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill North Carolina. She currently resides in Wilmington NC where she works for the New Hanover County School system specializing in language intervention for children on the autism spectrum. Throughout her tenure as an SLP she has worked in a variety of settings, including skilled nursing, sub-acute rehabilitation, acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, and served as a regional director of a multidisciplinary private practice. Kristin created the Non-profit "Find the Piece" in conjunction with the Care Project in order to "Fiercely and compassionately emotionally support ALL families who share the journey of autism through connecting the pieces together"
Job Titles:
- Director of Logistics
- Logistics Director
Lara Pike attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington where she received her Bachelor of Social Work degree. She and her family live in Wilmington, NC. Lara is the parent of a child who has bilateral cochlear implants and uses cued speech. Lara and her family became involved with The CARE Project in 2015 when they attended their first family retreat on Bald Head Island, NC. Soon after this retreat she and her family continued to remain involved by volunteering at different CARE Project retreats and events held around NC. In 2018, Lara began working as the Logistics Coordinator for The CARE Project. Since then, she has coordinated events across the country such as weekend Family Retreats, Professional Development, Parent Professional Collaboratives, Virtual Family Retreats and Virtual Learning Experiences for both professionals and parents.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Find the Piece Board
- Clinical Assistant Professor at East Carolina University
Tristin Carpenter is a Clinical Assistant Professor at East Carolina University, College of Nursing. She has been a nurse since 1993, working in a variety of clinical settings; however, her heart is in Community/Public Health Nursing, where she can educate others on prevention and management of illness. Tristin met her future husband after she graduated from nursing school in 1993. Mike was in graduate school at East Carolina at the time. They married in 1995. In 2001, after Tristin completed graduate school and Mike was working on his PhD, the couple found out they were expecting their first child. Their son, Ethan, was born in 2002. He was later diagnosed with Autism in 2008 when he was almost 6 years old. Tristin and Mike also have a 15 year old son named Grant. They all live near Raleigh, North Carolina but also enjoy spending time at Oak Island, where they have a small getaway home there.