Katrina Martin
A peach gradient background with navy text has “The D-30 Disability Impact List” at the top centered above “2022 Honoree” which is in between two laurels. The words “Katrina Martin she/her/hers United States” is to the left of a picture of Katrina, which fills the right. Katrina is a light-skinned person with long, curly, black hair and dark eyes smiling at the camera. At the bottom, “Diversability, #D30DisList.” fills the left corner.
Katrina Martin (She/her/hers)
CEO & Founder, Bridges Learning System LLC
United States
Katrina is a co-author of the world's first neurodiversity-affirming Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum. Unlike conventional "social skills" programs which teach neurodivergent learners to appear more neurotypical, this program (the SEA Bridge) affirms neurodivergent ways of being, and encourages learners to embrace their authentic selves. She recognizes that any given project MUST be informed by a diversity of voices. She acknowledges that even though she has lived experience as a neurodivergent person, her perspective is just one, and so she has intentionally worked with dozens of collaborators (other neurodivergent educators, therapists, consultants, parents etc.) to ensure that the work she creates is informative of more than just her perspective.
Katrina published the world's first neurodiversity-affirming SEL curriculum. Now, professionals like Speech Language Pathologists and Occupational Therapists have access to a curriculum for group and individual use that is rooted in disability justice values. To date, the curriculum has been used by over 100 professionals in a combination of neurodivergent-specific and neurodiverse (all neurotypes) classrooms.
We asked Katrina if she’d like to add anything else to her accomplishments, she stated: “Our curriculum, Social-Emotional Acuity (SEA) Bridge is truly the first of its kind. Our program was developed by and for the Autistic and Neurodivergent communities. Unlike social skills curricula that enforces neurotypical social standards our workshop series is neurodiversity-affirming and creates bridges of understanding across neurotype. We do not ask the ND person to change but rather support them in thriving as their authentic selves. https://bridgeslearningsystem.com/sea-bridge/”