Linda Hampton Starnes has spent decades advocating for people with disabilities through her work as a special educator, parent of two children with disabilities, volunteer, board member, and speaker. She has a background in special education and has worked for the US Department of Education. She is currently involved with numerous disability organizations through board and advisory positions. Starnes focuses her presentations on topics like advocacy, inclusion, transitions, and assistive technology and has presented widely across the US. She continues to advocate through her volunteer work, especially in faith communities.

1. Linda Hampton Starnes
Linda Hampton Starnes has spent her life actively involved in the disability community – as a college student, special
educator, parent, speaker, advocate and volunteer. Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, she has lived in Dallas,
Boston, Washington D.C., and currently resides in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida. She graduated magna cum laude
with a BS in both Special and Elementary Education from the University of Tennessee, and received Graduate
Certification in Training and Development from Georgetown University.
Her special education career spanned six years in the 1980s, working with students with disabilities and their teachers, in
both Tennessee and Texas. During that time, Ms. Starnes had the unique experience of implementing several programs
related to the inclusion of students with disabilities within general education classes, before the term “inclusion” was even
in the educational vernacular. Her work was highlighted in a state training film for teachers in Texas.
New opportunities took Ms. Starnes to Boston and Washington, D.C. to work in higher education and government
circles. While her husband earned an MBA at Harvard, Linda worked at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. She then moved
to Washington, D.C. to work as Confidential Assistant with U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. Three years later,
she moved to the U.S. Department of Education as a Special Assistant under Secretary Lamar Alexander.
Then in 1993, Linda began her most rewarding work as mother of two children with significant disabilities. She has since
been a volunteer and activist within the disability community, while supervising a household that required a new set of
skills. She managed 24-hour home care nursing, worked with physicians in fifteen medical specialty areas, maintained
multiple therapy schedules, and has overseen over 40 hospitalizations, surgeries or procedures under anesthesia for her
children.
She stays current and informed on all aspects of disability rights, having continuously advocated for appropriate and fully
inclusive general curriculum education for her children at six public PreK-12 schools. Her work extends to inclusion
within multiple educational, community, recreational and religious settings, on behalf of her children and all persons with
disabilities. Now her children are young adults in college and the workforce.
Linda has been a board member on a many local, regional and national disability-related organizations and educational
institutions, including two terms on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disability (PCPID) under
Presidents Bush and Obama from 2006-2010, as sub-committee chair and then as PCPID Co-Chair. Currently, she
serves in a variety of capacities: Immediate Past Chair for the Dean’s Board of Advisors for the College of Education,
Health, and Human Sciences at her alma mater, the University of Tennessee and a six-month term on a University-wide
Task Force on Access, Inclusion and Disability at UT; Advisory Committee member for the Dick Thornburgh Forum for
Law & Public Policy at the University of Pittsburgh; Board member of Nathaniel’s Hope of Orlando; member of the
Medical Home and Healthcare Transition Workgroup and Consumer Alliance Board for the Southeastern Regional NBS
and Genetics Collaborative; and, she was recently named to the Advisory Council for the Mailman Center for Child
Development at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
Over the course of almost two decades she has presented on a wide range of topics at events and conferences across
the country, from advocacy/self-advocacy, positive and productive IEP meetings, supporting AT use, transitions, special
health care and medical homes, care for the caregiver, and faith and disability. In recent years, Linda and her two adult
children have also enjoyed encouraging others via presentations and workshops.
Her volunteer work on behalf of persons with disability also extends to the faith community. Linda was a founding
member for Access Ministry at McLean Bible Church in Northern Virginia. She helped lay the groundwork for this
program, which has since grown into the largest ministry in the country devoted to the inclusion of persons with
disabilities across the life of the congregation. After moving to Florida, Ms. Starnes helped start Access Ministries at her
current place of worship, Northland-A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Florida, as well as worked to bring a consortium
of faith and disability-related non-profits and organizations together across Central Florida. Lift Disability Network of

2. Orlando recognized her efforts with an award for “Outstanding Community Connector.”
Because of her decades long advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities, and as a constant proponent for the field of
education, Ms. Starnes has received a variety of awards, including being named to the “Educators Hall of Honor” at the
University of Tennessee, and receiving the inaugural “Outstanding Community Advocate“ award from the Department of
Teacher Education and Preparation at UT. She has been featured in several filmed presentations, and the story of the
Starnes family has been portrayed in several books and magazine articles.
Linda Hampton Starnes resides in Longwood, Florida with her husband of thirty-one years and high school sweetheart,
Tom Starnes. Together they have raised two wonderful young adults – Emily, age twenty-two, and a May 2015 graduate
of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee; and Mac, twenty, a sophomore at Lynn University in Boca
Raton, Florida.
UPCOMING and RECENT PRESENTATIONS:
- Transition Stepping Stones: Parent Perspectives on Empowering Students Towards In(ter)dependence
Transitions 2016: Empowering Independent Learning Annual Conference, Boca Raton, FL (Jan. 2016)
- Including Students Who Use AT/AAC Across the School Community: Ideas and Resources for All Grades, and,
- The Last IEP: Helping Families Plan a Path Toward the Final IEP
Florida Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, Orlando, FL (Oct. 2015)
- Transitions: Pediatric Health Services to the World of Adult Healthcare for Young Adults with Special Health Care Needs
International Sotos Syndrome Support Association Annual Conference, Orlando, FL (July 2015), and
Southeast Regional NBS & Genetics Collaborative Annual Conference, Asheville, NC (July 2015)
- Including Students Who Use AT/AAC Across the School Community (with C. Mullins, SLP), and
- Parents, Practitioners, Self-Advocates: Partnerships for Positive Outcomes (with C. Mullins, SLP)
The Family Cafe: FL State Conference on Disability, Orlando, FL (June 2015)
- From the NICU to College U: One Family Did It – You Can Too! , and,
- One Parent, One Student, One Teacher – Coming Together as an IEP Team
Tennessee MegaConference on Disability, Nashville, TN (May 2015)
- The Last IEP: Preparing for the End at the Beginning; and,
- Advocacy: Critical Conversations with Collaborative Outcomes
Accessibility Summit, Washington, D.C. (April 2015)
- Lessons Learned from the NICU to College U
Fairfax County Infant-Toddler Connection Services, Fairfax, VA (April 2015)
- Coming Together as a Team: Lessons Learned From Both Sides of the IEP Table
The Family Cafe: FL State Conference on Disability, Orlando, FL (June 2014)
- Changing Roles: The Move from Parent Advocacy to Self-Advocacy, and,
- Changing Hearts and Minds and Opening Doors: Encouraging Inclusion at Places of Worship
Tennessee MegaConference on Disability, Nashville, TN (May 2014)
- Parents, Self-Advocates, Practitioners: It Takes a Team for Tech Support
Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) International Conference, Orlando, FL (Jan 2014)
Multiple presentations on the following topics: “Assistive Technology”; “Parent Perspectives on Special Education”;
“Positive Planning – Everyone's Role in the IEP Process”; “Students with Multiple Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs”
University of Tennessee Graduate School of Education, Knoxville, TN (2010-2014)

3. - Sotos Syndrome? So What?! Coming Full Circle from Parent Advocate to Self-Advocate
International Sotos Syndrome Support Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN (July 2013)
- Coming Together as a Team: Lessons Learned From Serving on Both Sides of the IEP Table
Florida Council for Exceptional Children Annual Conference, St. Petersburg, FL (July 2013)
Multiple presentations to staff and volunteers on Why Have a Disability Ministry?, Disability 101, and,
Disability Etiquette and Respectful Language
Northland, A Church Distributed, Longwood, FL (2006-2013)
- A Parent's View of CHAMP Camp
CHAMP Camp Annual Fundraising Gala, Indianapolis, IN (April 2012)
- Holidays Past and Present: Care for the Caregivers
First Baptist Church of Orlando Annual Caregiver's Tea, Orlando, FL (Nov 2012)