Mattisa & KIrstan

Kerstin Sanders and her mom, Mattisa Moorer, are champions for special education services in Lowndes County Schools.

Like many teenagers, Kerstin Sanders enjoys movies, being out in the crowd, chilling out, and sleeping in. Cerebral palsy, Dandy Walker Syndrome, epilepsy, scoliosis, and restrictive lung disease are facts of her life, but they aren’t her life. Kerstin is a treasure to anyone who takes the time and effort to know her, says her mother, Mattisa Moorer. As Kerstin ages, her care becomes more complex. For example, multiple surgeries and procedures have made it necessary to change her feeding tube more frequently.

Medicaid pays for most of the medications and supplies that Kerstin needs every month. “It’s been a life-saver,” Mattisa says. The Lowndes County single mom realized she would need to be an advocate for her daughter when Kerstin entered Head Start. At first, the school’s special education coordinator listened carefully and designed a plan that allowed Mattisa to be a classroom aide. But a change of administration caused the plan to unravel. 

“I saw that I need to continuously advocate for Kerstin’s inclusion and, at middle school, her access,” Mattisa says. That calling now has expanded to include working part-time as a parent consultant with Family Voices of Alabama and serving as a consumer representative with her local Alabama Coordinated Health Network (ACHN). While patient advocacy has come with struggles — waiting lists, paperwork, hard-to-obtain information—Mattisa values her successes. She considers the camaraderie of others in similar situations to be one of her biggest wins.

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