CONVERSATION WITH ROSANNE SMALL-MORGAN

Rosanne Small-Morgan

Born and raised in St. Vincent, radio host, newspaper columnist, wife, mother and advocate drew on the strength gained from overcoming major life challenges to drive her to achieve her goals. Affectionately called ‘Rosie’ by her many fans, readers and social media followers, she is on a journey to enlighten and inform the masses on this important topic of Autism, and to provide support to families with Autistic children. Rosie’s passage to becoming a public face and voice for this cause was inspired by her 12 year old son Zane who is autistic. Even though Zane is quite high functioning and smart, as a parent she has battled several instances of adversity in getting him adjusted in society. Utilizing therapeutic blogging, she shared her family’s journey with Zane as well as his pitfalls and triumphs which in turn led to other mothers and household revealing their stories and “coming out of the closet” about their own experiences with autism. In order to keep things ‘light’ when imparting information on this topic which is often regarded as ‘heavy’, the dynamic Rosie uses her God-given talent for storytelling and her experience in stand-up comedy performance as her general approach. During her lecture/speaking engagements she would often wittily integrate stories about raising Zane and many times give feedback to the audience on how she and her family handled those particular challenges Blessed with a familiar, identifiable personality and a distinct gift for comedy and with new speaking platforms and projects on the horizon for this unwavering advocate for autism awareness, the possibilities are limitless as to where Rosie’s journey may lead her.T