Ken Hoyte ’02 provides resources — and hope — to families from underserved communities through the Center for Cognitive Development.
Much of the research literature in cognitive neuroscience has focused on majority populations, says Ken Hoyte ’02. As the founding director of the Center for Cognitive Development (CCD) in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Hoyte is working to remedy that imbalance.
“Our mission is to move the field of cognitive neuroscience in a direction that’s more inclusive, looking at culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and providing education, resources, and opportunities to underserved communities,” he says.
Founded in 2017 under the aegis of Medgar Evers College, affiliated with the City University of New York, CCD helps students from early childhood all the way through college, providing resources to early childhood centers and schools in the community. The support offered includes diagnosis, testing, and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as family counseling and other services.
Students at Medgar Evers are a significant focus of their work. “One of the things I’m most proud of is our ability to serve as a space to do educational testing on college students who have gone through high school with some kind of disability — diagnosed or not — and positioning them to succeed,” Hoyte says. “There are a number of students who might not have made it through college without our help.”
In addition to helping children and families, CCD also trains teachers to work with students with neurodevelopmental disorders and to implement cognitive intervention strategies.
Hoyte is also the interim dean of Medgar Evers School of Education, and he previously served as chair of the college’s Department of Developmental and Special Education. That experience comes in handy every day, as he works closely with colleagues from across the college, including in the departments of psychology, social work, and natural sciences.
The center’s impact extends well beyond Brooklyn. Hoyte is collaborating with multiple colleges in the country of Jamaica to establish educational and cultural exchange programs that will give students the opportunity to travel and expand their horizons. Over the past year and a half, he has also established a working relationship with the Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities in Kingston.
The collaboration began with a study of 60 children diagnosed with a range of disabilities to assess the population, followed by implementing targeted interventions to improve their educational outcomes. Hoyte intends to establish similar relationships with centers across the Caribbean, as well as closer to home.
“There are thousands of people who need our help…”
“We’re developing a detailed protocol and a full training manual that will explain how to develop and implement interventions for students with neurodevelopmental disabilities, complete with all the necessary materials to empower them to move forward,” Hoyte says. “Once we are confident we’ve created a model that we can replicate, we want to take that to other countries in the Caribbean, to other centers in New York City, and around the United States.”
The growth can’t happen quickly enough, Hoyte asserts. “One of our biggest challenges is meeting all of the demands of the community,” he says. “There are thousands of people who need our help and many more schools than we can reach on our own. In the future, I want us to be able to offer support to everyone who needs it.”
For Hoyte, a New York City native, the mission is personal. “Medgar Evers College was founded to serve the needs of the diverse community of central Brooklyn,” he says. “Being from Queens, it means a lot for me to serve this community.
“Some of the most impactful interactions I’ve had are with parents and families who have felt helpless, whether in Jamaica or Brooklyn,” he says. “I’ve spoken to so many parents who felt that there was no hope for their child, that no one cared, and who didn’t have the resources to do anything about it. To see their faces when they see that there is help available, that there is an opportunity to give their child a happy life — seeing that glimmer of hope is a powerful thing. It makes all the hard work worth it.”