Leadership

President

Tamar Heller, PhD

Tamar Heller, PhD, Professor, is Head of the Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago. She also directs the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Developmental Disabilities and projects on support interventions for individuals with disabilities and their families. In addition she is director of the University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities for the State of Illinois.

Dr. Heller has written over 140 publications and presented over 200 papers at major conferences on disability policies and interventions. She has co-edited two books (Health of women with disabilities; Older adults with developmental disabilities: Optimizing choice and change) and edited special issues of Technology and Disability, American Journal on Mental Retardation, Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, and Family Relations. She was a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging and serves on the Board of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.

 

past President

Michael Gamel-McCormick, PhD

Michael Gamel-McCormick, PhD, is the Interim Dean of the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy and the Associate Director of the Center for Disabilities Studies, (DE UCEDD) at the University of Delaware. He is also a professor in and interim Chair of the Department of Individual and Family Studies. Prior to joining the University of Delaware, Dr. Gamel-McCormick was a teacher of preschool children with disabilities, the director of an early intervention program, and the program director for a large urban human services agency serving children with disabilities between birth and eight years of age and their families. Most of his direct service experience is with children and families living in poverty.

Dr. Gamel-McCormick has provided technical assistance to early childhood and early intervention programs throughout the nation and in five countries. He is co-author of the book Young Children with Special Needs: A Developmentally Appropriate Approach and has published articles on inclusion, family-centered care, and interdisciplinary teamwork.

Dr. Gamel-McCormick has a PhD in education and human development from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Masters degree in counseling from the University of Wisconsin. He serves on the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council as well as the Governor's Commission for Community-based Alternatives for Adults with Disabilities and numerous other boards and councils.

 

past-Past President

William E. Kiernan, PhD

William E. Kiernan is the Director of the Institute for Community Inclusion (University Center on Excellence in Disabilities), Research Professor in the Graduate College of Education and the McCormack School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and a Senior Associate at the Children's Hospital in the Division of Developmental Medicine. The Institute is a joint program of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and the Children's Hospital also in Boston. For the past 37 years Dr. Kiernan has served in a variety of capacities in the Institute for Community Inclusion, as a senior staff member of the Children's Hospital, and been a member of the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Boston for more than 20 years.

Dr. Kiernan has served as an international consultant in seven countries in the development of adult service systems for persons with disabilities and has provided training and technical assistance in more than 45 states. He is the author of more than 125 articles and reports in the field of disabilities with a specific emphasis on transition, employment, public policy development, workforce development, and systemic change. Dr. Kiernan has been a member of several national boards, has served as the President of the American Association on Mental Retardation (now the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) and is currently the President of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.

In addition to holding a PhD in Rehabilitation and Special Education from Boston College, he has a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling and a second Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Health Care Management from Boston University.

Executive Director

George S. Jesien, PhD

Dr. Jesien began his appointment as Executive Director of AUCD on July 1, 1999. His experience includes extensive administrative and supervisory responsibility, most recently as the Executive Director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation since 1997. In this role, he directed and managed Foundation activities, including national grants management, the public policy fellowship program, the associate trustee program, and fiscal management of an annual budget of approximately $2.6 million.

He served as a Principal Investigator for a series of federal, state, and locally funded projects in personnel preparation, research, materials development, outreach, direct services, and information dissemination via the Internet at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison between 1989 and 1997. In addition, Dr. Jesien was awarded a one-year Kennedy Foundation Public Policy Fellowship in 1994 to work with the Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy with Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.

Dr. Jesien has traveled extensively providing technical assistance for disability programs in Europe, North and South America, and Asia.