About the Author

Sharon L. Pratscher, M.Ed., lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Alan Brown. Across a varied career, she has focused on empowering people and honoring voices that are too often unheard. As a project manager, she helped secure and steward grants that improved lives, including an accessible-housing initiative that remains active. She introduced a national program in Texas to better educate pediatricians about developmental issues—training that medical schools often overlook—and that effort continues statewide today. Earlier, in rural early-childhood work, she identified infants with developmental concerns and guided families to essential services, including long-term disability support when needed. Research and writing ran through all of these roles, shaping her clear-eyed, compassionate storytelling.