Linda C. Abraham
Linda Clack Abraham is co-owner and founder of the IMPACT Project, Inc., which was founded in 1991. She is a graduate of Shenandoah conservatory of Music in Virginia, where she earned a Bachelor of Music Education and a Bachelor of Music Therapy. During that time, she studied as a classical violinist and a piano minor and toured Europe with a chamber orchestra. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she worked extensively with teens and adults with emotional and physical limitations utilizing her musical talents as a tool to promote the therapeutic relationship. Following graduation, she worked as a teacher through the Bucks County Intermediate Unit.
Linda earned her Masters in Counseling Psychology and her secondary and elementary guidance certificates from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. She worked with socially and emotionally disturbed middle school children where she was a Child Development Specialist and then liaison in charge of treatment planning at Lehigh University’s Centennial School. Following her years at Lehigh University, she was employed as a guidance counselor for local school districts, both at the high school and elementary levels. She maintained a client base in private practice specializing in adolescent and family issues. She was also a crisis counselor at various schools and programs in Lehigh and Northampton Counties.
She continued her education through Capella University where she started as a PhD candidate in Education, and through that has since earned a second Master’s in Human Development while working at the IMPACT Project. She has served in the role of COO and Director of Educational Services for over 20 years and is one of the staunchest advocates of the educational rights of foster children in the state of Pennsylvania. The result of Linda’s tireless effort to do what is in the best interest of children’s educational rights and in making sure schools adhere to both Federal and PA State laws has led to numerous educational precedents and related legislation. These advancements now serve to protect the educational rights of young people who often have difficulties fighting for themselves.
She steadfastly refuses to allow schools to use stall tactics and avoidance when enrolling and dealing with foster children and has spent considerable time documenting every instance when a school or district violates a child’s educational rights. Simultaneously, she is always willing to help the school find the most appropriate placement for the children she is enrolling. As a result of decades of documentation and communication with the Educational Law Center in Philadelphia, the Educational Law Center and the IMPACT Project have worked together in order to focus on how foster children are treated during the enrollment process and their subsequent matriculation to the most appropriate and least restrictive program.
This partnership with the Educational Law Center has led to multiple studies and precedents that have supported the educational rights of all children who may be placed outside their original district of residence. It is this effort that continues to be a priority Linda’s priority and it is a critical factor in making a positive difference in the lives of the children we are entrusted to serve.