Personnel
CDS Staff | Partnership Demonstration Team Members
Robert A. Stodden, Ph.D., Principle Investigator & Associate Professor, Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, is a past president of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). Professionally trained in Psychology, Special Education, and Rehabilitation, Dr. Stodden has served more than twenty-five years as a national leader in the fields of special education, school to adult transition, postsecondary education, and employment for persons with disabilities. Since 1988, he has served as the founding Director of the Center on Disability Studies (a University Center for Excellence) and professor of special education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also serves as the originator and director of the National Center for the Study of Postsecondary Educational Supports (NCSPES) and the National Technical Assistance Center (NTAC) for the Employment of Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders with Disabilities at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Stodden has served as principal investigator/director for more than 100 research and training projects focused upon improving the quality of life for all persons with disabilities. He has been a keynote speaker and invited presenter for many international and national conferences, and has served as a consultant within numerous foreign countries and for more than 20 different states within the United States. In 1995, Dr. Stodden was selected as a Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation Senior Policy Fellow, working in the United States Senate to develop and draft policy language for major pieces of disability legislation. He serves on policy committees of the National Association of Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers, and as a member of the Board of Directors for Division on Development Disabilities, International Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).
Kelly Roberts, Ph.D., Project Director & Associate Professor, Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, holds a Ph.D. in Education (Exceptionalities) with an emphasis on learning disabilities and assistive technology (AT). She has nearly 20 years experience working in the education field. She holds an Assistive Technology Practitioners Certificate from the Rehabilitation and Engineering Society of North America (RESNA) and is well versed in the application of AT.
Her research interests include assistive technology and learning disabilities. She also has applied experience working with individuals with a broad range of disabilities. Dr. Roberts is the Co-PI and Director on the Office of Postsecondary Education grant Innovative and Sustainable Teaching Methods and Strategies to Ensure Students with Disabilities Receive a Quality Higher Education. She is also the director of the FIPSE funded project entitled Disability & Diversity: Demonstrating Effective Practices for Culturally & Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students with Disabilities to Transition into and Access Postsecondary Education.
Megan A. Conway, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Center on Disability Studies (CDS) and an Associate Faculty member with the Department of Special Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She serves as a core faculty member for CDS’s Disability and Diversity Certificate Program. Dr. Conway received her doctorate in Special Education from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001. While at Berkeley, she became increasingly aware of the problems facing individuals with disabilities as they pursue higher education, leading to her interest in improving postsecondary options and supports for individuals with disabilities. She has also developed an interest in the emerging field of disability studies in education, and has published an RDS forum focused on this issue. Dr. Conway also has strong interests in disability studies as it relates to law and public policy, sociology, and technology.
Dr. Conway has published numerous articles, and given national and international presentations focused on postsecondary education access, special education, self-advocacy, technology, and dual sensory loss. She worked for several years in the United Kingdom as a consultant on communication and technology access for people with dual sensory loss, and as a result of her work had the opportunity to meet other people with disabilities in the U.K. and continental Europe. She currently enjoys living and working in Hawaii, and particularly enjoys the beautiful weather and landscape that allow her to pursue her favorite outdoor activities year-round.
Steven E. Brown, Ph.D., Assistant Professor & Disabilities Scholar, Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, teaches in the graduate Interdisciplinary Certificate Program in Disability and Diversity at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Brown, whose education is primarily in history, is also adjunct faculty with the Department of Political Science and the MCH-LEND program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is a Professional Development Specialist on the Office of Postsecondary Education grant Innovative and Sustainable Teaching Methods and Strategies to Ensure Students with Disabilities Receive a Quality Higher Education. He is also Project Director for the Alliance for Inclusion Advancement—Hawaii and an editor of the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal.
Dr. Brown’s is a respected chronicler of the disability rights and disability movement and disability culture whose most recent publication, Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride (People with Disabilities Press, 2003), joins dozens of articles and five previous monographs about disability, including Independent Living: Theory and Practice, which has been translated into several languages; and Investigating a Culture Of Disability: Final Report, the result of a prestigious Switzer Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research of the Department of Education, the first funding of its type for research into the field of Disability Culture. He is also a sought-after speaker and trainer, who has worked in all over the U.S., in Canada, Germany, Hungary, and Sweden.
Velina Sugiyama, Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is Administrative Assistant for the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) grant. She has been with the Center on Disability Studies since 2001 as the Administrative Assistant for the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal. In that capacity she organized several National Capacity Building Institutes. Currently she is the assistant for the Field Initiated Research and Native Hawaiian projects Ha'awina Ho'Opapau Nanakuli and Ka Hana Imi Na'auao.
More Staff
- David Cayton
- Elizabeth Foster Heckman
