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Developmentalist Trissa Fonnesbeck, M.Ed., Family & Human Development Trissa Fonnesbeck brings to her work with NACD a lifetime of experience in the fields of human development, emotional education, and health and wellness. Prior to NACD, Trissa managed a health food store, practiced privately as a Life Coach, and presented over one hundred workshops and seminars on topics related to communication, personality styles, and relationship issues. Her community service included providing services for low-income single mothers, providing services for abused children, and being PTA President as well as a Mentor for Self-Reliance in a humanitarian services program. As a mother, Trissa raised five extremely bright children who suffered the challenges of dyslexia – in the days before a formal diagnosis or teaching strategies for the disorder existed. To help the children succeed in their education, both Trissa and her husband became involved with their schools and homeschooled some of the children at different times. In hindsight, the diverse roads Trissa traveled over the years of pursuing her own education and career objectives while raising a family seem to have prepared her steadily for her work with NACD. Trissa began her formal education at Utah State University as an English major and art minor and later took human development classes, intending to pursue a career in marriage and family therapy. When her husband’s work required relocating the family, Trissa’s studies were interrupted until they moved to Ogden, Utah, where Trissa transferred her college credits to Weber State University. Since WSU had no family therapy degree, Trissa enrolled in a special integrated studies program that required course work in three minors and a Master’s-level thesis integrating the three fields – which, for Trissa, included English (writing), Family Studies, and Health Instructional Development. She wrote her thesis on empowering consumers to be more responsible for their own health. It was an extensive, demanding program that took years to accomplish since she was still raising children, but she succeeded in earning her Bachelor’s degree in 1997. Trissa then went into private practice as a life coach, and also gave marriage preparation classes and counseling. Having an “insatiable hunger for knowledge”, Trissa continued her education by taking classes and seminars in personal development and leadership. In 2002, she went back to school for a Master’s degree in Family and Human Development, which she completed in 2004. She anticipated a relaxed approach to establishing her next career move, but soon learned of an opportunity to work for NACD. Impressed by NACD’s effectiveness and family-centered approach, Trissa sought an interview and committed to the extensive training required to become a Neurodevelopmentalist for NACD. After intensive training at the NACD home office, Trissa spent several months accompanying Bob Doman to evaluation sites around the country, observing and learning under his mentorship. At these evaluations, Trissa helped parents with paperwork and heard their stories. Trissa remembers, “These parents had been told soon after their child’s birth that ‘this child’s never going to walk, never going to talk, never going to really do much of anything. So what you need to do is go and take a long vacation and then come back and settle into the life that’s ahead of you.’ And here was their five-year-old child right in front of me, walking and talking. This was really exciting, because I didn’t hear that kind of story once, I heard it several times.” Trissa, who’s grandson with Asperger’s is now doing well on his own NACD program, continues to travel to various NACD Chapters, and performs evaluations in the Ogden office. Along with other staff, she also responds to calls and emails from families inquiring about NACD. One of Trissa’s classes long ago required that she develop a “personal mission statement,” which still hangs on her wall today:
Trissa’s lifetime of “integrated studies” has come full circle in her work with NACD. She says, “It was fun to read my mission statement after starting here at NACD. Everything in it is exactly what we’re about here.” |
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