Life Beyond the Classroom

Dr. Wehman is Professor of Physical Medicine with joint appointments in the Departments of Rehabilitation Counseling and also Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves as Chairman of the Division of Rehabilitation Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Wehman has his Ph.D. in Behavioral Disabilities from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As one of the original founders of supported employment, he has worked closely with business and industry since 1980 and has published over 200 articles and authored or edited more than 40 books primarily in transition, severe disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury and employment for persons with disabilities. He has been the Principal Investigator on 41 million dollars in grants during his career.

As the father of two young adults with disabilities, he brings a strong parental as well as business perspective to his work. He is highly active in speaking to professionals, parents, advocates and businesses on transition and employment for people with autism, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other developmental disabilities. On a daily basis he works with individuals with disabilities, communicates regularly with professionals in the world of business related to disability and diversity, and is active in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and doctoral students in rehabilitation medicine, special education, rehabilitation and psychology. A major focus of Dr. Wehman's work is on expanding the partnerships with businesses of all sizes so that more persons with disabilities can gain entrance into the workplace and retain employment successfully.

He is a recipient of the Kennedy Foundation Award in Mental Retardation in 1990 and President's Committee on Employment for Persons with Disabilities in 1992. Dr. Wehman was recognized as one of the 50 most influential special educators of the millennium by the Remedial and Special Education journal in December, 2000. He is also Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D. is Professor of Special Education; Director, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; and Senior Scientist, Beach Center on Disability, all at the University of Kansas. He has published more than 25 books and 250 scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to self-determination, special education, intellectual disability, and eugenics. He is s co-author of the widely used textbook Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools, published by Merrill/Prentice Hall, now in its 7th Edition. His most recent book, co-authored with J. David Smith, is Good Blood, Bad Blood: Science, Nature, and the Myth of the Kallikaks, published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). Dr. Wehmeyer is Past-President (2010-2011) of the Board of Directors for and a Fellow of AAIDD; a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Career Development and Transition (DCDT); a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Division (Div. 33); a Fellow of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD); and former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Remedial and Special Education. He is a co-author of the AAIDD Supports Intensity Scale, and the 2010 AAIDD Intellectual Disability Terminology, Classification, and Systems of Supports Manual.

Karrie A. Shogren, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Special Education; Co-Director and Senior Scientist, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; Associate Director, Beach Center on Disability, University of Kansas, 1200 Sunnyside Avenue, Room 3136, Lawrence, KS 66045

Karrie A. Shogren is Professor of Special Education; Co-Director and Senior Scientist, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; and Associate Director, Beach Center on Disability, all at the University of Kansas. Dr. Shogren's research focuses on self-determination and systems of support for people with disabilities as well as applications of positive psychology and strengths-based approaches to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; she has a specific interest in contextual factors that affect student outcomes. Her work focuses on developing and researching the efficacy and effectiveness of assessment and intervention approaches for students with and without disabilities to promote self-determination, with a particular focus on the role of these approaches in the transition to adult life and engagement in meaningful adult roles and responsibilities. Dr. Shogren has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, is the author or coauthor of 10 books, and is a coauthor of Intellectual Disability: Definition, Classification, and Systems of Support, the 11th edition of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities' (AAIDD's) seminal definition of intellectual disability (formerly mental retardation). In addition, she is a coauthor of AAIDD's Supports Intensity Scale--Children's Version and Supports Intensity Scale--Adult Version. Dr. Shogren has received grant funding from several sources, including the Institute of Education Sciences and National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Shogren is Co-editor of Inclusion and Remedial and Special Education and Associate Editor of Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities. She has received the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Research Distinguished Early Career Research Award and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Early Career Award. Dr. Shogren completed bachelor and master's degrees in psychology at Ohio State University and the University of Dayton, respectively, and her doctoral degree at the University of Kansas.

Pamela Sherron Targett, M.Ed., has worked in the area of disability and employment since 1986. For 22 years she oversaw the day-to-day operations of a fee-for- service supported employment program that assisted individuals with significant disabilities with going to work. During this time she also worked with schools to develop community-based vocational education programs. Her special interests include transition to work for youth with disabilities and individuals with significant support needs, such as brain injury and autism.

Valerie Brooke, M.Ed., has been a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and has worked in the field of employment for people with significant disabilities for more than 35 years. Ms. Brooke is Project Director of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Employer Practices, Director of Wehman Training for the VCU's Autism Center of Excellence, and Director for Employment Services, a Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities-accredited program serving individuals from the state vocational rehabilitation program. Ms. Brooke completed an 18-month appointment to the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities by the U.S. Secretary of Labor as a provision of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and she has served on the editorial board for the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation since 2000.

William Grant Revell, Jr., M.S., M.Ed., served as a research associate at Virginia Commonwealth Universityâ (TM)s Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. He has extensive experience in the areas of policy analysis and funding related to state and national implementation of community-based employment supports for individuals with significant disabilities. He has served as a project director for a variety of national technical assistance and research projects, including the National Supported Employment Technical Assistance Center. He also worked for 15 years for the Virginia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency as a counselor and as the state-supported employment program supervisor.

Jennifer Todd McDonough, M.S., CRC, has more than 22 years of experience in the field of vocational rehabilitation. She serves as Associate Director of Training at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)'s Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, where she creates unique personnel training programs and provides technical assistance for employment issues for individuals with disabilities across a variety of target audiences. Ms. McDonough is also Project Director of National School 2 Work Autism Research Disability and Rehabilitation Research Project, a randomized control trial study and serves as the Virginia Project SEARCH Statewide Coordinator. In her career with VCU, Ms. McDonough has been an active researcher and practitioner as well as a frequent contributor to the literature, and she is known for her ability to assist people with intellectual or developmental disabilities in securing competitive integrated employment.

Colleen A. Thoma, Ph.D., earned her doctoral degree from Indiana University, where she began her research on self-determination in transition planning. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education and Disability Policy and Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond. She teaches courses on disability policy, transition and secondary education, curriculum and instruction, and characteristics of students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Her research interests include preparation of teachers to support selfdetermined transition planning, student-directed individualized education program development, and the impact of student self-determination on transition and academic outcomes. She has mentored doctoral candidates at VCU (including her co-author, Dr. Christina Bartholomew) in their own research on self-determination, teacher preparation, and transition services. Dr. Thoma's scholarship, teaching, and service have focused primarily in the areas of self-determination, transition planning and services, and teacher preparation. She co-authored a book on transition assessment with Dr. Caren Sax, Transition Assessment: Wise Practices for Quality Lives (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2002), and has authored or co-authored more than 40 peerreviewed journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. She is a frequent presenter at major national conferences, with more than 100 peerreviewed presentations over the past 10 years. She is the recipient of VCU School of Education's award for Distinguished Scholarship (2007). Her leadership in the field of transition services also included 5 years on the executive board of the Division on Career Development and Transition, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children, including 1 year as President.

Kimberly Boyd, M.T., received her master in teaching degree in special education from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Special Education and Disability Policy. Her professional areas of interest include working with students with intellectual disability (ID), postsecondary education for students with ID, and the improvement of transition services for all students with disabilities. Ms. Boyd currently works as a special education coordinator for a local public high school.

Erik Carter, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department Special Education at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. His research and teaching focuses on evidence-based strategies for supporting access to the general curriculum and promoting valued roles in school, work, and community settings for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked as a high school teacher and transition specialist with youth with significant disabilities. He has published widely in the areas of educational and transition services for children and youth with significant disabilities. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Early Career Award from the American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. His research interests include adolescent transitions from school to adult life; peer relationships and peer support interventions; students with severe disabilities, access to the general curriculum; and religion, congregational supports, and disabilities.

Carolyn Hughes, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Project Director of the federally funded Metropolitan Nashville Peer Buddy Program. In 1990, she received her doctoral degree in special education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in the areas of secondary transition and employment and self-management strategies. At Vanderbilt University, Dr. Hughes teaches courses in behavior management and the transition from school to adult life and manages several federally funded research and personnel preparation grants. She conducts research and publishes widely in the areas of self-instruction and self-determination, supporting the transition from school to adult life, and social interaction and social inclusion of high school students. Dr. Hughes is a coauthor of Teaching Self-Determination to Students with Disabilities: Basic Skills for Successful Transition (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 1998) and is on the editorial board of the American Journal on Mental Retardation, Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Journal of The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, Journal of Behavioral Education, and Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. In addition, Dr. Hughes taught general and special education classes in public schools in Montana for 10 years.

Elizabeth Evans Getzel, Ph.D., is Director of Postsecondary Education Initiatives with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Workplace Supports at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has extensive experience conducting research, evaluation, and training in the areas of transition planning for secondary students with disabilities, postsecondary education for students with disabilities, and career planning/employment for individuals with disabilities. She currently directs approximately $3 million of grant-funded projects focusing on supported education in postsecondary education, career development for college students with disabilities, faculty professional development focusing on universal design principles, and secondary education transition services. Her research interests include secondary education transition planning, self-determination skills of college students with disabilites, and effective services and supports for college students with disabilities. Ms. Getzel serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disabilityand is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation and The Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education She has authored or co-authored journal articles and book chapters on transition, career development, postsecondary education, and employment. In addition, Ms. Getzel has presented extensively at state, national, and international conferences and at meetings on her projects and research areas.

LaRon A. Scott, Ed.D., received a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice, with a psychology minor, from Radford University in Virginia. He worked as a mental health/mental retardation case manager before completing a master's degree in education from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Qualified in special education and mental health, LaRon continues his career, which includes working with at-risk and children and adolescents with special needs by serving as an intensive in-home counselor and special education teacher. Mr. Scott teaches students with disabilities in both academic and community settings. He continues to guest lecture in graduate-level courses at VCU on universal design for learning and self-determination. He was recently named the special education department chairperson at the school where he is employed. In 2007, Mr. Scott received the Iva Dean Cook Teacher of the Year Award, given by the Division on Career Development and Transition of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Carol Schall, Ph.D., Director, Virginia Autism Resource Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Post Office Box 842020, Richmond, Virginia 23284

Dr. Schall is Assistant Professor of Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been learning from and supporting individuals with autism for more than 25 years. Dr. Schall is involved in supporting individuals across Virginia through her work as the director of the Virginia Autism Resource Center. She is well versed in completing functional behavior assessments and using positive behavior supports to develop comprehensive plans for individuals from a person-centered approach. Dr. Schall is a nationally known speaker. In addition to her speaking engagements, she provides consultations to schools, families, and community services providers who support individuals with autism or related disorders. Dr. Schallâ (TM)s research interests include the use of psychotropic medication by individuals with autism spectrum disorders and training for parents and professionals who work with individuals with developmental disabilities. Dr. Schall is listed in the 2005 and 2006 editions of Whoâ (TM)s Who in America and was honored by TASH with their Positive Approaches Award.