Luza Acevedo

Luza was born in Mexico and moved to the United States in 2007 to the Kansas City area. There she lived with her husband and had her two daughters. When her first daughter, Camila, was 6 weeks old in the NICU, she was diagnosed as having Down syndrome. Luza and her husband immediately knew they had an unexpected adventure ahead of them.

From the beginning, Luza knew she wanted to help her daughter reach her highest potential, so she began working with her at home. By the time they found NACD, Camila wasn’t making as much progress cognitively or academically as they hoped for, and she also had auditory, visual, and physical challenges. After a few months into her NACD program, however, she started to make progress in all areas, and Luza couldn’t be happier.

From the beginning Luza knew that NACD’s approach to a home program, having the support of an evaluator and a coach, makes all the difference to the family when implementing and working towards the progress of the program. Now as a coach for NACD, she knows that she can be that first point of contact and support for other families, while helping them to best implement their program and have a better outcome. She said that “knowing this makes my heart so happy.”

Luza is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a bachelor’s degree in international business from the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico. Before becoming a stay-at-home mom, she worked for 9.5 years at the treasury department in a Fortune 500 corporation and for a year as an entrepreneur of a food distribution company.

While most of her professional experience hasn’t been working in the child development field, she does have 12 years of experience of working with Camila, and two years of working with Jimena, her youngest daughter, who also needed some help and really benefited from it. She feels that these years have helped equip her to support other families as they work with their own children. During all those years she has also been learning continuously by reading and taking courses about child development and also by attending conferences about Down syndrome. All those learning opportunities have helped her to better understand the program and how it helps children to reach their highest potential.

Luza and her family moved to the Dallas area in 2019. She is happy to join NACD as a coach and is ready to help other families, while continuing to learn about child development and the resources available to help them succeed.