Our Team

Helping Hands A&E was created by several insightful women from Howell with many years combined experience in special education. The idea was born from seeing one of our graduating students struggle to find meaning and a purpose in his life after high school. He had been a graduate for months and still had not found a replacement that he enjoyed as much as his high school experience. This heightened our awareness of the very limited opportunities for our students once they make it through their preK-12 education. At that juncture, we decided that making Helping Hands A&E for as many students as possible was our priority.

The Team Making It All Possible

Colleen Hordichuk, Director of Art Programming

Colleen Hordichuk started her work in a Philadelphia hospital program for young adults providing art therapy and life skills training. After taking time off to raise her children, Collen reentered the workforce, joining the staff of a local high school where she designed and implemented an art component for a new autism program. Due to an overwhelmingly positive response from students, the program grew over the years to include art gallery shows and award ceremonies. In 2011, one of her art students was honored with the prestigious Governor’s Award in Art. Colleen earned degrees in psychology and art therapy from The College of New Jersey. She co-founded Helping Hands Art and Exercise, where her passion for art has enabled her to reach the inner artist in both her verbal and non-verbal students. In 2018, one of her Helping Hands artists presented Vice-President Biden with an original painting of the White House that was created in the program.

Lori Alexander, Director of Exercise Programming

Lori Alexander has been a teacher in a public high school since 1994. Since 2007 she has been teaching in its self-contained autism program. She became passionate about autism education when her son was diagnosed on the spectrum in 2004, at age two. She shifted her career from teaching honors English to teaching people with autism. In 2007 she earned the title Teacher of the Year for her work in the autism program. Lori is the co-founder of the Helping Hands Art and Exercise program.  She has a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Berkeley and a master's of arts in English Education from Rutgers University. Lori’s passion for a healthy lifestyle led her to choreograph the exercise DVD Move with Us.