Amy Hewitt, PhD

Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota

Dr. Hewitt has an extensive background and work history in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities and has worked in various positions over the past 28 years to improve community inclusion and quality of for children and adults with disabilities and their families. She is the Director of the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration and the Associate Director for the MN LEND. She directs several federal and state research, evaluation and demonstration projects in the area of community services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She currently has research projects that focus on community living, direct support workforce development, and positive behavior support. She is also a founder of the College of Direct Support a national training curriculum development project that currently delivers training to 280,000+ direct support professionals each day throughout the United States and has delivered over 4 million completed hours of training to these Direct Support Professionals.

Dr. Hewitt is a national leader in the area of community supports to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the direct support workforce. She was a founder of the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals and has been instrumental in the development of the NADSP national credentialing and accreditation program. Dr. Hewitt has authored and co-authored many curriculum, journal articles and manuscripts. She is a managing editor of Frontline Initiative a national newsletter for DSPs; a contributing editor for LINKS a newsletter of ANCOR and guest editor of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities a journal of the AAIDD. She is currently a Board member for the national American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the national Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Arc Minnesota, and Arc Greater Twin Cities.