RETAIN Kentucky Return to Work and Stay at Work Model Webinar

Dr. Sheppard-Jones (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky, which is Kentucky’s University Center on Disability. She holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Kentucky, where she also serves as faculty in the Counselor Education program in the College of Education. She leads 275 interdisciplinary staff in promoting the inclusion, independence and contributions of people with disabilities and their families throughout the lifespan. An active researcher with nearly $40 million in lifetime externally funded grants and contracts, she oversees projects around employment, higher education, quality assurance, leadership and universal design.

Dr. Sheppard-Jones is lead administrator for the state’s Employment First Council, and sits on the state’s KentuckyWorks Collaborative along with state Cabinets’ secretaries and leaders from business, industry and education, charged with operationalizing the state strategic plan for education and workforce development. She leads multiple statewide initiatives and develops resources that can lead to innovations benefitting all workers, and that will help grow and retain a workforce that is inclusive of all people. She is also a certified rehabilitation counselor.

Phillip Rumrill is a Professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education at the University of Kentucky (UK) in Lexington. He also serves as Director of Research and Training in the UK Human Development Institute. He has worked for the past 30 years teaching and conducting research in university-based Rehabilitation Counseling programs. Over the course of his career, Dr. Rumrill has authored or co-authored more than 300 journal articles and 16 commercially published books on various topics related to the education and employment of people with disabilities. His research interests include aging and disability, issues facing students with disabilities in higher education, assistive technology and reasonable accommodations, chronic illness, the career development implications of disability, services and outcomes of the state-Federal Vocational Rehabilitation program, workplace discrimination, and traumatic brain injury.