For three years, I worked to design and implement a wrap-around
program for teenagers with emotional disabilities who had returned
home to N.D. from institutions outside the state. The program involved
parent and foster care training, in-school therapies, and standard
and special education. It also involved co-operative practices with
mental, rape and abuse, foster care, and social service agencies.
While I routinely taught academics during the first two years, I
concentrated my efforts on an assessment and therapy team working
with abused students and perpetrators the third year. The following
two years, I spent working at a SAC Air Force Base teaching 6th,
7th, and 8th graders Title 1 Reading, English, and Social Studies.
After completing my Doctorate in Philosophy, I taught special education
for two years at Idaho State University before accepting a position
at UWO in 1997.
My early research centered on the transition of students with emotional
and behavioral disorders, and involved statistical analyses of large
data bases. After beginning work at UWO, my research interests veered
toward state and federal policies centering on persons with disabilities.
The topic change necessitated a methodological shift to historical
analysis and descriptive statistics. More recently, I have begun
to work on advocacy issues and the over-representation of minority
students in special education.
