About Our Lead Consultant

Deidre Madres is the founder and lead consultant of Accessible Education. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Specialist in School Psychology (SSP) with a concentration in Autism Spectrum Disorder from Texas State University.

After graduating from UT, Deidre spent several years in non-profit administration before stepping away to raise her children, during which time she served as PTA President, PTA Treasurer, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). Returning to the workforce, she worked as a Parent Support Specialist in local elementary schools, where she found her footing in family engagement and educational advocacy.

That work took on new meaning when she navigated the Section 504 and Special Education processes for her own child. Even with her professional background and familiarity with public schools, the experience was harder than expected. She threw herself into research, eventually secured services for her child, and decided to pursue a graduate degree in school psychology to help other families do the same.

As a graduate student, Deidre served as her campus's Student Leader for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and co-authored two peer-reviewed articles, one of which she presented at the annual NASP conference. After graduating, she worked as a school psychologist providing psychoeducational assessments, counseling for special education students, and teacher consultations, before advancing to a district-level role supporting a large evaluation team that included school psychologists, educational diagnosticians, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and behavior specialists.

Deidre founded Accessible Education in 2022 to bring together her non-profit management background and her experience in public education. Her most recent enterprise consulting engagement placed her with a large urban district as a Subject Matter Expert and Process Improvement Consultant, where she supported the planning and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and served as a liaison between operational staff (IT, HR, and Finance) and educational programmatic staff. Her technical expertise includes data integration, quality, governance, and analytics, particularly with Student Information and Learning Management Systems, and spans compliance and reporting requirements under TSDS, PEIMS, and the State Performance Plan (SPP).

In 2024, Deidre expanded Accessible Education's services to include direct parent and family support and advocacy, returning to the work she finds most meaningful: helping families understand their options and advocate effectively for their children.