The Rochester UCEDD's initial team was composed of some faculty members who were committed to devoting significant time to the new program, but others were not, and new leadership was required. Recruitment of faculty from other UCEDDs was a high priority. But recruitment of partners from community agencies also took place. SCDD concentrated on establishing a governance structure, and on building an exemplary service and support base upon which a training program could be built, and ultimately upon which outcome research could be conducted.

The governance structure was traditional for UCEDDs. Dr. Davidson appointed directors of exemplary service, preservice training, community outreach, and dissemination. This group formed an Executive Committee to oversee program development. This leadership team structure persists to this day, with the updating of functional groupings to Clinical Services, Training, Community Programs, Research, and Administration and Finance.

Leadership Recruitment

No individuals were more important to these efforts than Christine M. Burns, EdM, MBA, and Ruth J. Messinger, ACSW. Dr. Davidson had worked with both on the School Health Programs team and they shared the same values and visions. When the UCEDD Satellite Center was funded, Dr. Davidson turned to both for help in shaping the new program. Both understood interdisciplinary training and had been involved in various ways with pediatric resident education prior to Dr. Davidson's arrival in Rochester. Both knew the disability community and how to bring the new UCEDD closer to community-based programs. Both were excellent clinicians and were committed to improving services for children with IDD and complex health care needs. However, they had different foci and different skill sets.

Ruth Messinger made a major contribution to the field by developing programs supporting individuals with IDD who became involved with the criminal justice system. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the deinstitutionalization movement increased the number of people with IDD living in the community but did not provide the necessary supports and services to deal with behavioral problems. In some cases, this led to interactions with the criminal justice system, which was not prepared for addressing such consumers’ needs. Cultural differences between the service systems needed to be addressed and few locales were ready to do so. Ms. Messinger conceived an approach that utilized a community task force to define a program to divert adults with IDD from incarceration.