Hap has over 35 years experience in special education working with children of all ages. Most of her time at the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities was spent working in Early Intervention. In the mid 1980s when the first federal law and rules governing supports for children birth through age 2 and their families were written, Hap was instrumental in writing Ohio’s first EI program. Hap worked closely with the Ohio Department of Health and other agencies providing supports to young children and their families and helped to lay the foundation for DODD’s current leadership. Hap retired from DODD as the Director of the department’s Early Intervention Program. Although after retirement from DODD in 2006 she worked for the Department of Education for 10 more years, she never left the EI field and continued taking online courses in EI from the Center for the Developing Child and teaching online EI seminars. Hap graduated with a B.S. degree from Marshall University and an M.A. degree from Auburn University, both in Special Education.