Welcome Note...

As we enter February, we are excited to share two especially significant moments that reflect both the heart and the horizon of our work.  

The first offers an invitation to a deeply human question—what it means to truly belong—and traces how that question has shaped the Center’s current vision. The second is a historic moment for Baylor and the newly named Moody School of Education, with the announcement of a transformational investment to expand research, training, and opportunities that will impact generations to come. 

We are grateful for the doors that are opening to build this work at Baylor. Thank you for coming alongside us. Your support, collaboration, and shared vision make this work possible and help our mission come to fruition. 

-Erik Carter and Kristen Padilla 

We are honored to be featured in the spring issue of Baylor Magazine. When Everyone Belongs, explores how disability, faith, and belonging intersect at Baylor and beyond through the Center’s collaborative initiatives. This story illustrates the ways our work is equipping churches, schools, and workplaces to move beyond accommodation toward true belonging—recognizing people with disabilities as essential to the flourishing of every community. Read the story.

Baylor University’s School of Education received a historic $30 million gift from the Moody Foundation of Galveston, Texas—its largest in 107 years—prompting the school’s renaming as the Moody School of Education. This transformational investment will expand scholarships, faculty research, and academic programs across the school. The gift includes the Russell Moody Endowment for Disability and Flourishing, which will directly support the Baylor Center for Disability and Flourishing in advancing research, innovative programming, and new academic pathways that equip a range of professionals to better serve individuals with disabilities. Read more. 

Erik Carter will receive the 2026 Leadership Award by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). This national award recognizes Erik’s outstanding leadership and lasting contributions to the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities—advancing research, shaping practice, and championing inclusive communities where people with and without disabilities can truly belong and flourish. He will be honored at the 150th AAIDD Annual Meeting in Chicago this June. 

Last month, several Center faculty and graduate students attended the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD) Conference. Our team contributed multiple lectures, posters, panels, and workshops addressing autism and developmental disabilities, family partnerships, culturally responsive practices, inclusive STEM, and transition-focused outcomes. Baylor’s prominent presence at the conference underscores our commitment to research-based practices that expand access and opportunity across the lifespan. Read more. 

Erik Carter was a featured guest on the Transformed & Transformational podcast hosted by TeachBeyond. In the conversation, Erik explores the intersection of faith and disability and introduces the 10 dimensions of belonging, offering a hopeful vision for communities shaped by welcome, participation, and flourishing for people with and without disabilities around the world. 

We invite you to help carry this mission forward. Your generosity, partnership, and prayers fuel every program, every training, every breakthrough, and every story of hope.

We can do so much more together.

Let's build a world where every person is known, needed, and loved—and where all can flourish.

Stay connected with the Baylor Center for Disability and Flourishing

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