Melanie Tyner-Wilson

Melanie Tyner-Wilson currently serves as the Family Support Specialist/Navigator for the University of Kentucky Developmental Pediatric clinic and has served in this capacity since 2015. In previous positions she has served as the Special Needs Outreach Coordinator for the Kentucky Injury Prevention Research Institute/Pediatric Injury Prevention Center/Safe Kids Kentucky and Injury Free Kids Coalition. She received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has taken coursework in Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation at the University of Kentucky.

Ms. Tyner-Wilson is a biological and adoptive parent of 2 young men: one that has autism and a second son with ADHD. She is now a grandparent raising a grandchild. She has focused her advocacy efforts for all Kentucky children in promoting educational policy and legislation related to enhancing the quality of family life. She is a current member of the Fayette Human Rights Commission, past member of the Kentucky Autism Council, Commonwealth Council on Developmental Disabilities, Melanie and her husband Steve served as parent liaisons for the Adoption Support of Kentucky for 11 years. She is a member of the Autism Society of the Bluegrass; she has served as an advisory board member of Kentucky Autism Training Center, the National Early Childhood Transition Center, and the Kentucky Partnership for Families and Children.  She served as an educational mediator for 11 years for the Division of Exceptional Children Services with the Kentucky Department of Education.

In previous positions, she has worked in Student Affairs at the University of Kentucky in leadership development, collaborated with academic affairs to find ways to infuse opportunities for academic support programming in the residence halls, and enhanced health/wellness opportunities for students. She has worked for the University of Kentucky Human Development Institute University Center for Excellence as a project coordinator/family involvement specialist for the Kentucky Early Childhood Transition Project. The mission of this project is to work with all stakeholders in the transition process to create system change policies and practice that impact the positive transition of children and families from 0-8 years of age.