MTSA 2025 Conference
March 10-12, 2025
Lansing Center, Lansing, MI
Speakers, Program & Schedule Information
MTSA 2025 Annual Conference
Monday, March 10, 2025: Starts at 1:00pm (snack break provided)
Tuesday, March 11, 2025: 8:30am-4:00pm (breakfast & lunch provided)
Wednesday, March 12, 2025: 8:30am-12:30pm (breakfast provided)
Keynote Speakers
(Additional speakers will be added in the near future)
LeDerick Horne, Speaker, Poet, and Advocate
Empowering Youth: Seven Tips for Success
Afternoon Keynote Address: March 10, 2025
LeDerick Horne, a formidable presence in public speaking and advocacy, transcends labels to inspire individuals with disabilities. Diagnosed with a learning disability in the third grade, LeDerick seamlessly integrates his dynamic spoken-word poetry to ignite conversations on equal opportunity, pride, and self-determination. Grandson of a prominent civil rights leader in New Jersey, he utilizes his poetic gift to champion hope for those with disabilities, establishing himself as a compelling and unwavering advocate and speaker.

Join nationally recognized speaker, poet, and advocate LeDerick Horne for a transformative keynote on empowering youth with disabilities. In “Empowering Youth: Seven Tips for Success,” LeDerick offers practical strategies for school staff and family members to help young people with disabilities transition successfully into adulthood. This session will delve into fostering self-advocacy skills, building disability pride, and creating supportive environments that celebrate individual strengths. Drawing from his personal journey as a person with a disability, LeDerick will leave attendees inspired and equipped with actionable tools to guide youth toward realizing their fullest potential.
Tyler Merren, Paralympic Athlete and Champion
Morning Keynote Address: March 11, 2025
Tyler Merren is a 5 time Paralympic athlete with the Men’s USA Goalball Team, Motivational Speaker, Personal Trainer, and owner of ReVision Training LLC. Born in Michigan with an eye condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa, Merren despite his visual challenges grew up with a love for sports and activities, which transferred into his Baccalaureate in Exercise Science and career as a Personal Trainer and Elite Athlete. His wife Leanne, who is also blind, and he, have four children and currently live in Greenville Michigan where Tyler is working for Camp Tuhsmeheta, an outdoor adventure camp for blind students, running his business, developing the ReVision Fitness audio fitness program, homeschooling his children, training for the USA Team, and being the best husband and father he can be. Merren believes that blindness is a challenge, not a barrier, and teaches that with the right skills and determination, all things are achievable.
Tyler Merren’s presentation called “Seeing The Champion Within,” is a blind man’s journey from farm to fame and the lessons learned along the way which helped him develop his 5 key elements to bringing out the greatest potential in each of us; finding our true champion within. Merren will share successes and failures, funny stories and sad stories, from humble beginnings on a small rural farm to the Paralympic Gold Medal Match at the height of an illustrious athletic career that will leave you inspired to check your self doubts at the door and invite you to see the true champion within.

Tyler Merren Breakout Session

Exercising can be challenging for anyone, add in a visual impairment and the barriers can seem insurmountable. In this breakout session however, Tyler Merren will demonstrate the program he developed called ReVision Fitness, an audio text based fitness program specifically designed to be accessible for the blind. Merren will share some of the techniques used in the program to help teach proper posture, body mechanics, and ultimately provide access to movement typically learned through visual input. The session is designed to help instructors gain some of the tools needed to better support persons who are blind and visually impaired to connect with fitness.
Morning Keynote Speakers: March 10, 2025



To be added
Celena Mills, Director of the MDE Office of Career and Technical Education
Sigrid Adams, State Director for Michigan Rehabilitation Services, Department of Labor & Economic Opportunity, State of Michigan
In addition to hearing updates from our education and vocational rehabilitation partners, we will once again be hosting an attorney panel. Representatives from Clark Hill and Thrun Law Firm will be on hand to answer your questions related to the legal aspects of Transition Services! Please plan to join us for what promises to be an informative and enlightening look at the latest updates.
Program Information (coming soon)!