Nancy Parkin-Bashizi, M.A., COMS, CVRT

Nancy Parkin-Bashizi earned her Master’s Degree in Orientation and Mobility and Vision Rehabilitation Teaching for the Blind from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock in 1995.

She has been working in the field of Vision Rehabilitation in Georgia since that time. In addition to working as an itinerant teacher, providing O&M, VRT and Job Readiness Training services to clients of all ages, Nancy has worn many other hats in her profession.

For 8 years, Nancy served as the Program Director and Lead Teacher at
Vision Rehabilitation Services of Georgia. In this role she worked to develop new programs to meet the changing needs of clients and provide support and training to her teaching staff. VRS proudly supports professional training programs and hosts at least one OM or VRT intern each summer.

Over the past 28 years Nancy has helped guide many new teachers into the
field. Though Nancy is originally from Canada she officially became a US
citizen in May 2015.
In 2012 Nancy earned her certificate in The Rehabilitation of Persons who
are deaf-blind from Northern Illinois University and has used this knowledge to help build programs that provide training and support to clients who are hard of hearing and / or deaf-blind. Helping her staff learn the skills needed to work with this special group of clients is one of the achievements of which she is most proud.

Nancy has given numerous presentations on many aspects of Vision Loss
and Vision Rehabilitation at professional conferences and in-service
trainings throughout Georgia, the Southeast and the US. She is a current
program mentor for the VRT Program at Salus University, is the secretary of AER Division 2, Rehabilitation Counseling and Employment and is a member of ACVREP VRT SME committee. She has also written two Webinars with
Mississippi State University’s NRTC.

In her free time, Nancy is a soccer mom, a gardener and volunteers as the
kayaking program lead for Georgia Blind Sports. You can usually find her
outside with her family, friends and clients. She recently became a certified L2 Kayaking Instructor.