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.
Date of First Employment
at UW Oshkosh: 1988
Years of P-12 Experience: 5 Years