Presenting Dina Tallis
Written by Julie Raskin and Dina Tallis
CHI is offering a series of blog articles on the speakers who will be addressing families attending the Fourth Congenital Hyperinsulinism Family Conference March 17 and 18, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA. In our second article, we present Ms. Dina Tallis.
Dina Tallis is one of those people who manages to do it all. She has been an incredibly dedicated mother to her daughter Ashlee who has congenital hyperinsulinism (the HIHA type) while continuing to pursue a career in elementary education. Now with the dual credential, mother of a child with congenital hyperinsulinism (HI) and principal of an elementary school in Michigan, Dina is the ideal person to speak to parents about managing HI at school at the Fourth Congenital Hyperinsulinism Family Conference which will be held on March 17th and 18th at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
I have been lucky enough to know Dina for a good long time. We met many years ago, first virtually on the Yahoo Hyperins board (a great place to connect with other HI families even in the Facebook era), and then at the 2006 Congenital Hyperinsulinism Family Conference, also in Philadelphia. I hope you all have a chance to meet her at the upcoming conference and to participate in her session. She understands school issues from all vantage points and can help parents navigate school systems successfully.
Dina graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in elementary education with a focus on early childhood development. Upon completion of her degree, she obtained a teaching position, while pregnant with Ashlee at the very same time.
And now in Dina’s own words: When Ashlee was about 6 months old I started back to school to get my Master’s in the Art of Teaching. Four months after starting the program, Ashlee had her first seizure. Luckily, the school where I worked was very supportive as it took nearly 10 months to get Ashlee properly diagnosed with HIHA and on Diazoxide. As we attempted to resume a normal routine again I finished up my Master’s in the Art of Teaching and settled into my teaching career.
After several more years my itch for education returned and I completed my Master’s in the Art of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. During this period Ashlee was relatively stable with her HIHA. We experienced a lot of bumps along the way but most of those bumps were due to the severity of her HIHA and the need to increase her meds each time she had a major growth spurt. I eventually went back to school to pursue my career path of an elementary principal. After finishing my Education Specialist degree in Education Administration, the school district where I had been teaching for eleven years offered me a principal’s position. I am currently employed with that same school.
The most interesting part of my education was learning about all the regulations and rules pertaining to special education and medical plans. Obviously, this information sparked my interest as for nine years we’d been dealing with having a child in in the public school system with medical needs. Being able to see education from the perspective of a classroom teacher, a building principal, and most importantly, a mother, has enabled me to not only ensure Ashlee’s medical needs are taken care of, but that other children who have medical needs are safe and healthy when they are in my care. In a society where education cuts are dictating important aspects of education, such as nurse availability, the idea situation is not always available. However, understanding your rights as well as the limitations schools are dealing with are important as we attempt to provide our children with an education, away from home, and feel comfortable and confident that they are getting the best possible care.
