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Keynote Speaker

 

Robert Stodden, Ph.D., is the founding Director of the Center on Disability Studies and Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has also served as President of the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD) and several other professional associations in the disability field. Dr. Stodden has served as chairperson of the Department of Special Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Coordinator of Career/Vocational Special Needs Graduate Programs at Boston College. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Stodden has served as principal investigator/director of more than 150 research and training projects spanning numerous areas of disability study, including secondary school transition, postsecondary education, and employment for youth with special learning and behavior needs. During the process of reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997, Dr. Stodden served as a Kennedy Senior Policy Fellow with the Disability Policy Subcommittee in the United States Senate, drafting and negotiating much of the language found in the legislation.

Dr. Stodden is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal (RDS), and has served as the special issue editor for numerous peer reviewed journal in the field. He is the originator and has served as the convener of the International Pacific Rim Conference on Disabilities for the past 26 years, has been a keynote and invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences, and has consulted with several governments in the Asia/Pacific Region on the provision of supports and serves to individuals with disabilities. His work in the disability field is recognized internationally in a range of different journals and publications. He currently serves on numerous association and journal editorial boards and has maintained an active presence in the field of disability studies for more than thirty years.