CBIST Spotlight: Sharon Grandinette

Sharon Grandinette, M.S., Ed., CBIST is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer and an internationally recognized consultant who focuses her work on school reintegration for children with acquired brain injury, providing advocacy to families, and being an expert witness services in pediatric legal cases. She has worked in public schools as a special educator and administrator for over 30 years, developed and administrated two private special education brain injury schools, and spent three years as director of a children’s post-acute brain injury rehabilitation program. Sharon was an adjunct instructor in the graduate special education department for California State University Dominguez Hills for 18 years where she taught future special educators about pediatric brain injury, and speaks regularly at brain injury conferences at the state, national, and international levels.

Sharon was instrumental in developing the TBI authorization for the California Department of Education and has written articles and a book chapter on the topic of children’s brain injury. She currently serves on the boards of the North American Brain Injury Society (NABIS), the National Children’s Collaborative on Brain Injury (NCCBI), and has previously served on the boards of the BIA of California and BIAA’s Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists, where she assisted in the writing of the pediatric chapter in the Essential Brain Injury Guide, Edition 5.0. She is a member of the International Pediatric Brain Injury Society and is on the planning committee for their 2020 conference. Sharon was the guest editor for the 2017 pediatric issue of the Brain Injury Professional and was recently awarded the 2018 Clinical Innovator Award by NABIS.

Why have you chosen a career in brain injury?

I chose a career in brain injury after working as a special educator because of a student I had many years ago who sustained a brain injury in a bicycle accident/no helmet at age 9 in 1986. I then began to learn everything I could about pediatric brain injury and how it impacted children differently than children with other disabling conditions. What are you most passionate about in the field? My passion is working with the children to assist them in obtaining their highest level of independence possible through training school personnel in understanding brain injury and utilizing effective educational and behavioral strategies. I also find it fulfilling when supporting the families of these children, especially with school issues they often encounter.

Why is having your CBIST important to you?

I often feel like I am an ambassador for pediatric ABI, and the CBIST after my name gives me the credibility to share my knowledge when training others. I often encourage other educators to obtain the CBIS certification, and help them study, prepare for and proctor the exam for them.

How has having your CBIST benefited your work as a Pediatric ABI Consultant or made an impact in your community?

Having the CBIST has greatly benefitted my work as it relates to children with ABI in not only the education and training world, but also in the legal world where I provide expert witness services in pediatric brain injury legal cases. It demonstrates that I have a level of expertise in the field that is sanctioned by the Brain Injury Association of America.

What are some of the latest trends in practice or needs that you are seeing in supporting survivors of brain injury or their caregivers?

Although TBI was added as a special education eligibility category under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act in 1991, only 25% of educators in the US have had any training in understanding these children. This is partly due to the fact that the teacher training programs are not addressing this disability in their curriculum. Educators should be made aware of and offered the opportunity to obtain their CBIS certification so that this gap can be closed.