Dr. Lesley Cottrell appointed director of WVU Center for Excellence in Disabilities (WV UCEDD)

July 8, 2016

Lesley Cottrell, Ph.D., has been appointed director of the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities.

"WVU is lucky to have dedicated faculty leaders like Lesley Cottrell who work every day to serve the children of West Virginia," said Clay B. Marsh, M.D., vice president and executive dean for health sciences. "We're counting on her to expand the Center's role in helping individuals with disabilities in West Virginia get the services and supports needed to live and participate in their communities."

Dr. Cottrell is a professor and vice chair of research in the WVU Department of Pediatrics, and was named interim director of the CED in 2015. She has been the co-director of the West Virginia Prevention Research Center. From 2004-11, she led the research component of WVU's renowned CARDIAC program, which provided screening and intervention to tens of thousands of West Virginia children at risk for heart disease. She has also served as a member of the WVU Faculty Senate since 2005.

Cottrell holds a doctorate in developmental psychology and she has worked and been funded on several projects related to autism and disabilities. She served as the PI for the West Virginia portion of the National Children's Study, which examined developmental conditions such as autism and longitudinal trajectory of learning disabilities.

Most recently, she was selected as the recipient of WVU's 2015 Women in Science and Health award.
The WVU CED is part of a national network of university sites tasked by the federal government to facilitate the flow of disability-related information between the community and university. Currently, there are 67 University Centers that work with people with disabilities, members of their families, state and local government agencies, and community providers.