Individuals should have equal access and opportunity to be gainfully employed. However, individuals with special needs are often restricted in what options are available to them after high school. My career has been focused on supporting students with special needs to achieve post-secondary credentials so that they can better compete in the job market against their qualified peers. My research area at the University at Buffalo is on making large enrollment college courses more supportive for students in order to increase retention. Improving graduation outcomes is about more than just outside support - there needs to be a framework within the course so that students believe that they can be successful with hard work and faculty and Teaching Assistants are there to help. To that end, I provide training workshops to faculty, post-doctoral students, and TAs in inclusive teaching practices and Universal Design for Learning.
Listed skills include Teaching, Higher Education, Research, Program Development, and 8 others.