Florida's First Choice for Autism Supports

Lauren Veit

Ms. Veit found her true passion in working with individuals with disabilities early in her career. She joined an agency in New York that serves individuals with intellectual disabilities as a counselor for their sheltered employment program. At this point, Ms. Veit completed a Master of Education in dual areas of Rehabilitation Counseling and Mental Health from Hofstra University and became a nationally Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. For over thirteen years, she used her talents in several different capacities at this agency, including but not limited to Counselor Supervisor, Supported Employment Supervisor, Day Habilitation Administrator, and Assistant Director. Highlight of Accomplishments: • Developed a transition program with local schools where students would spend after-school and school breaks at the sheltered workshop and in small groups learning transitioned topics and hands-on experience. • Integral role in downsizing a sheltered workshop of over 700 participants to smaller community-based hub sites serving 15 to 20 individuals with disabilities. Tasks included the development and construction of sites, development of fleet management, development of community-based curriculum, integrated volunteerism opportunities segwaying into supported employment opportunities and developing and implementing both parent and staff training. • She developed and was awarded an AmeriCorps grant. This grant was the first in the state to have individuals with disabilities be the providers of service rather than recipients. • She was honored with the Genevese Merit Award for service to individuals with disabilities.   Ms. Veit then applied her talents to a new position with the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation after her family chose to relocate to Florida. She served nineteen years for the Division, first as a Unit Supervisor and then as an Area Supervisor.   Throughout over thirty years of dedicated service to serving individuals with disabilities, her advocacy in part has been focused on youth transitioning successfully into adulthood and adults integrating into the community as contributing members of society. Highlight of Accomplishment: • Increased productivity and customers served in the unit. The unit was performing at the bottom of the leaderboard. In four months under her supervision, the unit reached second. • Facilitated effective networking and collaboration in the community, increasing the number of placement providers from three to over fifty to provide individuals with disabilities the best options in informed choice regarding their services. • Championed and managed the pilot of the soon-to-be-implemented statewide service of Self-Advocacy within the local county. • Advanced the Project Search program availability through active local leadership of three Project Search programs within the area supervised. • Cultivated collaborative working relationship with placement provider and local Walgreens, resulting in a training program at Walgreen’s distribution center that supports individuals with disabilities through paid training, resulting in hiring. • Supervised a national model for Individual Placement Services (IPS) serving individuals with significant mental health.   Ms. Veit was excited to segue into the position of Transition Specialist for the Florida Atlantic CARD BRIDGE Program this past year, where she provides specialized support and resources to transition-aged youth with autism and their families to develop meaningful outcomes for adulthood., as well as development of the BRIDGE Transition Toolkits.

Financial and Non-Financial Disclosures: Employed with FAU CARD. No non-financial disclosures.

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January 16, 2026
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