“I should have never had to wait until my daughter was 10 years old to get the right therapies and I shouldn’t have had to wait until she was 13 to put her in a school environment that says ‘Well, whatever she needs, we’re here to help.’ No child should be left behind.”
Sharita Bingham, a mother of six (ranging from 11 to 21) living in Charlotte, North Carolina, has always been fascinated by how people think. Her interest in cognitive reasoning led her to pursue degrees in psychology and criminal justice.
Sharita’s interest in brain functionality is not just educational – it is also personal. One of Sharita’s daughters has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), and her daughter’s teachers were not prepared to accommodate her needs. This motivated Sharita to become an advocate for her daughter and students with behavioral needs to help them access support in their local school systems.
Her goal is to open up a testing center with psychologists who could test children to better evaluate their abilities. She would also work with psychologists to create a curriculum for teachers to have as a training guide on how to work with children who are diagnosed with mental health conditions. Currently, she is working as an Exceptional Teacher at Mountain Island Lake Academy in Charlotte.
Read the blog post from program associate Mike White on rwjf.org to learn more about how RWJF is prioritizing and responding to parent and caregiver voices.
