Lex Owen, MSW, PhD

Public Health and Disability Inclusion Practice Fellow | Public Health

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Lex Owen, MSW, PhD, is the Public Health and Disability Inclusion Practice Fellow for the new National Technical Assistance and Training Center on Disability Inclusion and Emergency Preparedness, a component of AUCD's National Center on Disability in Public Health. She contributes to the Center through developing and carrying out evaluation elements, supporting the creation and dissemination of training materials, building relationships among public health entities and disability organizations, and facilitating greater understanding of the need for disability inclusion within emergency settings.

Lex brings over 10 years of experience working with people with disabilities, their families and related stakeholders in training and research contexts. Prior to coming to AUCD, she worked, first as a trainee and then a staff member, at the Institute on Disability and Human Development (IDHD), a University Center of Excellence on Developmental Disability (UCEDD) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). There, she developed and conducted trainings ranging from self-advocacy skills to future planning and collaborated with partners to develop state-wide trainings on Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) new requirements. She also conducted several research projects, resulting in a variety of published reports and analyses. Most recently, she completed a postdoctoral research project at University of California, Berkeley, focused on ethical and social implications of CRISPR genome-editing technology.

Lex holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Jane Addams College of Social Work at UIC, and a PhD in Disability Studies, also from UIC. She resides in Los Angeles, CA.

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