From the Desk of Dr. Craig Escude

Throughout my career, I’ve been guided by a single, unwavering belief: that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) deserve the same opportunity as anyone else to live healthy, fulfilling, and self-directed lives. That belief has shaped everything I do—and it continues to drive the work of IntellectAbility.

I’ve seen what happens when care is delivered through a person-centered lens. When we move beyond checklists and diagnoses to see the whole person—their strengths, preferences, and humanity—we unlock something truly powerful. We don’t just improve health outcomes; we restore dignity, build confidence, and nurture connection.

This space is where I share reflections, insights, and stories that come from years of experience in the field, from listening to people with IDD and the people who support them. My goal is simple: to encourage better understanding, spark meaningful dialogue, and help lead a broader shift toward care that transforms lives—not just systems.

Thank you for being part of this mission.

Dr. Craig Escudé, MD, FAAFP, FAADM, FAAIDD

Dr. Craig Escudé is a board-certified Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Academy of Developmental Medicine (AADM), and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) with over 20 years of clinical experience providing medical care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and complex medical conditions. He graduated from Louisiana State University Medical School in New Orleans in 1992 and completed his residency in family medicine in 1995 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi.

He practiced family medicine for four years at a federally qualified health center in Mississippi and began working for Mississippi State Hospital in 1997. At the state hospital, he provided medical care for several hundred people receiving mental health care and to more than 350 people on the hospital’s campus who were supported in nursing homes.

Dr. Escudé began working at Hudspeth Regional Center in 1988, a state residential program for people with severe and profound intellectual and developmental disabilities, until he retired from the state in June of 2018, serving as medical director for most of that time. While at Hudspeth, he founded DETECT, the Developmental Evaluation, Training, and Educational Consultative Team of Mississippi, whose purpose is to educate, train, and support community-based medical and dental providers who provide care for people with IDD.

Continuing in his passion for improving health and educating clinicians and other professionals who support people with IDD, in July 2018, he was named president of IntellectAbility. Dr. Escudé’s pursuit of educating clinicians led him to create the Curriculum in IDD Healthcare, the first-of-its-kind eLearn course that teaches the fundamentals of IDD healthcare to physicians, nurses, medical students, and other clinicians. Through this course, his lectures, and his writings, he has taught thousands of clinicians and supporters throughout the United States and beyond.

In addition to being regularly published in Exceptional Parent Magazine, he also co-authors the “Unlocking Behaviors” article series in Helen: The Journal of Human Exceptionality, which sheds light on how many so-called “adverse behaviors” in people with IDD are actually due to treatable medical, environmental, or social causes.

In 2023, Dr. Escudé began hosting the podcast, IDD Health Matters with Craig Escudé, MD, where he speaks with a wide range of leaders, self-advocates, agency directors, clinicians, administrators, and others from across the globe involved in designing and facilitating service delivery to people with IDD.