William E. Kiernan, PhD

Director, Institute for Community Inclusion, University of Massachusetts Boston

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 36 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.