Dori Ortman

Dori Ortman began her career in program management over two decades ago and brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work in advancing family leadership in maternal and child health systems. Her expertise is grounded in extensive continuing education in disability and mental health services, combined with both professional knowledge and lived experience as a parent of a child with special health care needs.

Throughout her career, Dori has developed evidence-informed educational resources addressing inclusive education and recreation, peer interactions, and meaningful integration of lived experience partners in professional training. These materials have been disseminated widely through national conferences, academic coursework, professional handbooks, and training initiatives. Her co-authored publication Fabric not Fringe: Weaving Family Involvement Throughout Training and Practice for Professionals and Advocates Working with Individuals with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs advances strategies for authentic family engagement in healthcare planning, implementation, and evaluation. Dori has secured multiple local and national grants focused on her efforts to provide appropriate training and assistance to families, educational institutions, and community organizations serving children with disabilities.

Currently, Dori serves as Family Faculty and Family and Advocacy Training Director at LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities) Pittsburgh, affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In these roles, she developed the LEND Pitt Advocacy Academy, a signature initiative training family members, self-advocates, MCH professionals, and graduate students in systems-level advocacy competencies. She has also created a comprehensive graduate-level curriculum on advocacy for maternal and child health professionals working with children and youth with special healthcare needs, transforming practitioners from individual service providers into strategic systems change agents. Her work at LEND Pitt includes developing an inclusive, competency-based curriculum for Family and Advocacy Trainees that parallels clinical training standards, ensuring equity across disciplines.

Dori contributes to national leadership through her involvement in multiple initiatives, including projects focused on elevating family and caregiver lived experience as expertise, cultivating parents and caregivers as change agents, and research addressing ableism in pediatrics.

In addition to her LEND Pitt roles, Dori maintains practice as a crisis counselor. She regularly consults with families and school districts and presents at local, state, and national conferences.