Tara Mason, PhD is an assistant professor of inclusive education with over 20 years of special education and assistive technology teaching experience. She directs the Master of Special Education Program at Western Colorado University, where she teaches and advises students in the special education program. Her special education public school background encompasses self-contained and resource classrooms working across K-12 special education and working as a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI) and district-level assistive technology specialist. Her research interests are accessibility, and student empowerment using strength-based frameworks; technology and Universal Design for Learning (UDL); trauma-informed teaching practices; writing interventions, neuroplasticity, historically responsive literacy instruction within special education; and best practices in special education teacher preparation. She has presented over forty sessions and workshops in the past several years, along with publications regarding teaching new teachers how to write IEPs, trauma-informed instruction, and assistive technology. Dr. Mason believes we need to celebrate student strengths and identities to facilitate student growth. We can achieve this by having tough conversations with teacher candidates about diversity and inequity in our schools, thereby empowering future educators to be student advocates and teacher leaders in their buildings.