SSRI co-fund Krista Wilkinson was recently received the Leadership in Outreach Scholarship Award at the College of Health and Human Development's 2018 Faculty and Staff Awards, sponsored by the College of Health and Human Development Alumni Society.
Wilkinson has been a faculty member in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) since 2008. In 2012, she founded the "For Good Musical Performance Troupe" of the Centre County Down Syndrome Society, a performance group comprised of individuals with Down syndrome and near-age peers from the local musical theatre community.
Due to this group's success, Wilkinson formed “For Good Beginnings,” a performance group for younger children and those new to stage experiences. Based on that success, Wilkinson alsodesigned a course, Supporting Communication through Performance, which was offered in 2017 as an independent study. This course is a collaboration with Medora Ebersole, education and community programs manager for the Center for Performing Arts at Penn State, and Michele Dunleavy, associate professor of dance at Penn State.