Texas Center on Disability and Development Trainee Receives TASH Emerging Researcher Award

January 28, 2011

Elizabeth McAdams Ducy

Elizabeth McAdams Ducy, a doctoral trainee with the Center on Disability and Development at the Texas A&M University, has been awarded the Alice H. Hayden Emerging Researcher Award by TASH, the international association for people with disabilities. This award is presented to a doctoral student in education or a related field who demonstrates potential for leadership in teaching, scholarship and service on behalf of people with significant disabilities. Recipients of the Alice H. Hayden Emerging Researcher Award were recognized last month during the 2010 TASH Conference in Denver.

Ms. McAdam Ducy is one of the Center's newest interdisciplinary trainees and is earning her doctorate in Learning Sciences in the Department of Educational Psychology. For the past two years, Ms. McAdams Ducy has participated in research through Project REDD (Research and Education on Disability and Disaster) under the direction of Drs. Laura Stough and Amy Sharp. The team has collected data on the long-term recovery of people with disabilities following Hurricane Katrina. Taking this line of research a step further, Ms. McAdams Ducy has investigated the impact of Hurricane Ike on special education classrooms that included students with low-incidence disabilities. Demonstrating her promise as a researcher in the field of disability studies, she has authored two publications and presented seven papers at national and state conferences.