Cora Halder

Cora-HalderDirector, German Down-Syndrom InfoCenter

Cora Halder, originally from the Netherlands, is a trained teacher for the deaf and Montessori school system.

Halder worked as an educator in Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand. She has two daughters; her youngest daughter has Down syndrome and was born in New Zealand 1985. She and her family settled down in Germany, and in 1988 Halder founded a Parent Down Syndrome Association and set up the German Down-Syndrom InfoCenter in 1998. She was president of the association and is currently director of the DS InfoCenter. Some of her responsibilities include counseling families, organizing seminars and conferences, cooperating with scientists as well as public relation work. Halder hopes to finish her training as a psychotherapist soon, and then plans to focus on counseling adults with Down syndrome and their families.

Halder is the chief editor of the German journal “Leben mit Down-Syndrom,” which has been in circulation for 27 years. She is the author of many articles and has published information brochures, books and films on Down syndrome with some of them translated into other languages. Halder lectures about all topics related to Down syndrome to professionals, families, students, etc. in Germany and many other European countries.

She was vice president of the European Down-Syndrome Association (EDSA), and from 2008 to 2014, was the EDSA President. She is still a board member of the EDSA.

The German Down Syndrom InfoCenter received an Honor and Pride Award at the 8th World Down Syndrome Congress in Singapore in 2004 for best practice family work. Halder was honored with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010.