Carters Kids-Org for the Advancement of Research and Treatment

Salaried Employee. The only paid employee is Linley Lyerly, serving as executive director. Her role requires managing the organization. Her primary tasks include 1) fundraising; 2) acquiring up to date information concerning medical treatments in Down syndrome via attending relevant conferences, researching and reading relevant scientific / medical literature/materials and communicating with researchers and doctors; 3) disseminating this material to parents, researchers and the medical community by dispersing material through the website (which will soon be up and running), attending conferences and organizing (and in 2015 hosting) an annual conference concerning new and relevant research about Down syndrome; 4) daily business management (i.e., financials, payroll etc.). These duties of the executive director fulfill the mission of Down Syndrome United by attending to and providing up to date research information to the research, medical and advocate Down syndrome community.

Contracted with web-designer. In order to provide a professional, well-functioning and well-organized platform to fulfill the organization's mission, we contracted a web designer and manager to create and manage a brand new website for the organization. As well, the organization has contracted a writer/editor to provide professional material concerning the organization's first-annual conference (coming in 2015) in order to best fulfill our mission of disseminating relevant material to the larger Down syndrome community.

Conference attendance and travel. In order to fulfill the organization's mission of providing current research information to the research, medical and advocate Down syndrome community, the executive director attends Down syndrome research conferences in order to stay abreast of current and future research applications to the Down syndrome population. In addition, she has participated in think-tank discussions with researchers, physicians and stakeholders concerning clinical-trials pertaining to Down syndrome. The information learned, gathered, etc. at such conferences is then disseminated to the greater Down syndrome community via social media outlets (such as Facebook parent / caregiver groups specific to Down syndrome), eventually the organization's website and the upcoming annual conference.