Neurodiversity and Public Relations with Jess Nerren

Welcome to Episode 57 of the Think UDL podcast: Neurodiversity and Public Relations with Jess Nerren! Jess is a full time Lecturer in Communication Studies at California State University, San Bernardino and also a full time doctoral student in educational leadership. In addition, she is a parent of an individual with Autism. Jess brings a wealth of Public Relations experience in the private sector before transitioning into academia, and she combines that with her lived experience as a parent to a neurodiverse son to better her teaching, her Public Relations work, and her current dissertation topic. In today’s episode we talk about the PR makeover that neurodiversity needs and is getting with UDL and the continued shift we need to make in higher education and in the workforce to better serve all of our students, clients, and our world. I met Jess serendipitously on social media when we both were offering a colleague some ideas to help neurodiverse students in the classroom and I was immediately impressed by her generous and thoughtful answer. In subsequent conversations, I learned how she is researching and doing the work right now that I think we need to be doing to flip the script on how universities and the public see learner variability, neurodiversity, and difference in general. It was my absolute pleasure to speak with Jess and I am so glad to bring this conversation to the Think UDL listeners. And I want to thank you for listening and I think you’ll enjoy this discussion on UDL, neurodiversity, and Public Relations.