Sandra Lewis, a Professor in the Schoolhouse of Teacher Education at Florida State University, currently is the Plan Leader for the Visual Disabilities major. Dr. Lewis previously worked as an educator of individuals with visual impairments of all ages in a variety of educational, home, and community settings. Immediately before starting at FSU, she worked every bit a member of a team that conducted comprehensive assessments of students with visual impairments attention public schools in California, including students whose severe disabilities included visual impairment. Dr. Lewis is known for her publications and presentations that back up quality services to come across the needs of adults and children with visual impairments and recently published a book on strategies for teaching the expanded core curriculum. She serves on numerous national, state, and local committees and was honored as the Mary K. Bauman award recipient—one of AER's highest honors—in 2010. She is the director of a long-term state grant to support quality innovative services to students with depression vision and has been awarded six OSEP-funded personnel grooming grants and several personnel preparation grants funded by the Rehabilitation Services Assistants. She recently was selected as the Editor-in-Primary of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness.

University OF Pittsburgh

Tessa McCarthy | tessam@pitt.edu

Tessa McCarthy is an assistant professor in the Section of Instruction and Learning in the vision studies program at the University of Pittsburgh. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2010 with a PhD in special education with an emphasis on visual disabilities and has more than a decade'southward experience as an teacher and consultant in orientation and mobility and visual impairments. McCarthy's research has recently been published in Journal of Visual Impairments and Blindness, the International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, and The Journal of Special Education. In the last twelvemonth, she presented on the use of artificial intelligence in reinforcing braille instruction.

WESTERN MICHIGAN Academy

Robert Wall Emerson | robert.wall@wmich.edu

Rob Wall Emerson is a Canadian ex patriate, living in the U.S. since coming down for his doctoral studies in 1994. He was trained as an English and scientific discipline secondary school teacher and worked as a Teacher for Children with Visual Impairments in northern Manitoba (he is likewise ACVREP O&M certified) before heading due south for his doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University. He has been in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies at Western Michigan University since 2004 and currently holds the rank of full professor. Rob has conducted research in a wide range of topics such as brain plasticity, early braille literacy, spatial hearing, complex intersections, accessible pedestrian signals, hybrid and electrical vehicles, math pedagogy, descriptive video, and long pikestaff biomechanics. He lives with his wife (as well an O&M) and two children (time to come O&Ms) in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

THE OHIO Country UNIVERSITY

Tiffany Wild | wild.13@osu.edu

Dr. Tiffany Wild began her pedagogy career as a heart school science and math teacher.  Her interest in visual harm began when students with visual impairments were placed in her classroom without any support.  Those students inspired Dr. Wild to become a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI).  As a TVI, she has worked as a teacher's aide for students with visual impairments in an early on learning centre and every bit an itinerant instructor for Project PAVE.  Dr. Wild was awarded a prestigious doctoral fellowship with the National Middle for Leadership in Visual Impairments to pursue her doctoral caste and her dissertation was awarded the "Dissertation of the Year" by the Quango for Exceptional Children's Sectionalization on Visual impairment.

Currently Dr. Wild is an assistant professor in the Department of Didactics and Learning in the College of Education and Human Ecology and coordinates the program in visual impairment.  She also is the president-elect for the Division on Visual Impairment and Deafblind and President of the Ohio Chapter for the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.   Her research focuses on science teaching for students with visual impairments.  Dr. Wild has published and presented both nationally and internationally. It is through her research endeavors that she has been asked to be a co-founding fellow member of the National Center for STEM Education for students with visual impairments, consummate enquiry on national Stem programming for the National Federation of the Blind, invitations to present at national, country, and local conventions.

GEORGE MASON University

Michael Behrmann | mbehrman@gmu.edu

 Dr. Michael Thousand. Behrmann is a local, state, and national leader/innovator in special education. He has devoted 35 years to improving services and personnel preparation in the field of special education with his innovative piece of work in instruction, research and service. He believes in collaborative enquiry/training enhanced by technology. An early on adopter of microcomputer technology, his pioneering pursuits are known worldwide. He wrote two of the first books on assistive and instructional engineering science. His over 80 publications and 250 presentations bridge almost three decades. Since 1979 at George Mason University (GMU), he has secured about $70 million in external grants and contracts, $xxx meg in revenue-based projects, and $4.5 million in gifts for special education to the academy. In 2007 he recieved the ARC lifetime achievment award. In 2008 he was awarded the Quango for Infrequent Childrens (CEC) J. Wallace Wallin Lifetime Achievement Award too as the Technology and Media Divison Leadership Award. In 2009 Dr.Behrmann was honored with the State Quango of Higher Pedagogy in Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award for Didactics with Technology. In 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Leadership past an Private in the Field of Distance Learning by the United States Altitude Learning Association.

Dr. Behrmann received his Ed.D. in Special Education from Teachers College, Columbia Academy in 1978. As part of his post doctoral activities, Dr. Behrmann was a participant in the Professional Leadership Program on assignment to the Governmental Relations Unit of measurement of the American Educational Inquiry Association. In 1979, he came to George Mason Universitys Special Education Programs every bit Coordinator of the Graduate plan in Severely Multi- Handicapped. He began his enquiry with assistive technology in special education in 1981 and designed and implemented a masters degree program in Assistive/Special Education Engineering in 1986, followed by a doctoral plan in Assistive/Special Instruction Technology. In 1998 he implemented a 15 credit Assistive Technology Certificate Program. Dr. Behrmann was also a charter member for CECs Engineering science and Media Partitioning (TAM).

He is currently the Helen A. Kellar Professor of Special Education in the Graduate School of Education and the Manager of the Helen A. Kellar Establish for Human disAbilities (KIHd). The establish has  over ninety funded kinesthesia and staff of which over 15 percent of the full fourth dimension employees accept disabilities. Current professional activities include the directorship of a land funded grooming and technical assistance center (TTAC) for Superintendents Region 4 of Virginia; a state grant to prepare teachers in the area of vision impairment. He is the PI on the Virginia Accessible Instructional Materials programme which provides free attainable materials (electronic, print, braille, etc) to students in Virgina who have a print disabilitiy. He is also continuing to develop the Kellar Instructional Handheld System, a information collection organization for collecting and automatically charting frequency, duration, accuracy and fluency data by teachers for children with disabilities. He is likewise working on land funded spider web based professional development sites, TTACOnline.org and The Virginia Family Special Education Connectedness (http://vafamilysped.org) to expand the capacity of VADOEs parent and professional person projects to online services.

Dr. Behrmann also has advanced collaborative intra-university and intra-agency projects across Virginia that have reached thousands of professionals. He adult programs that uniquely prepares teachers and other professionals in ABA, mild disabilities, severe disabilities and vision impairments. Through state funded collaboration in distance education, advanced technology helps evangelize a mutual curriculum to students at 7 state universities and at home.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS University

Stacy Kelly | skelly@niu.edu

Stacy Kelly is an Associate Professor in the Special and Early on Instruction Department in the area of Visual Disabilities at Northern Illinois Academy. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University in the area of Visual Disabilities. She completed her doctoral degree at Northern Illinois Academy equally a National Centre for Leadership in Visual Damage (NCLVI) Doctoral Boyfriend. She has also worked as a disability policy researcher in Washington, DC. She taught students who were bullheaded or visually impaired equally a instructor of students with visual impairments (TSVI) in the Chicagoland expanse. She is also a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) and a certified school ambassador. Most recently, she has been appointed as an Assistive Technology Certification Subject Matter Good (SME) by the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Pedagogy Professionals (ACVREP).

University of Massachusetts - Boston

Laura Bozeman | laura.bozeman@umb.edu

Laura Bozeman entered the vision profession in 1974 as an Orientation & Mobility Specialist in Texas. After working in direct service for twenty years, she received her Masters and Doctoral degrees from the University of Texas-Austin. Dr. Bozeman has served every bit a faculty at the University of Texas-Austin, North Carolina Fundamental Academy, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, and UMass-Boston. She has worked with all ages and been fortunate to teach in Taiwan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, American Samoa and the United states of america.  She is currently the Director of the Vision Studies program in the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Dr. Bozeman has been involved with the Association for Teaching and Rehabilitation of the Bullheaded and Visually Dumb (AERBVI) on the Chapter, Division, and International levels for many years. She has served multiple terms on the international and chapter boards of directors besides every bit the chair of divisions and committees.

Dr. Bozeman serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Visual Impairment and Incomprehension (JVIB) and as a reviewer for JVIB, Insight: Research and Practice in Visual Impairment and Blindness, International Journal of Orientation and Mobility (IJOM) too as the Blasch Scholarship awards.

Dr. Bozeman holds certification in Orientation & Mobility, Depression Vision, and was licensed as a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairment.

University of ARIZONA

Sunggye Hong | sghong@electronic mail.arizona.edu

Dr. Sunggye Hong, associate professor of the department of inability and psychoeducational studies and the plan coordinator of the visual impairments teacher training program, received both his master's and doctoral degrees from The Academy of Arizona in Special Education/Education of Students with Visual Impairments. He took a faculty position in the Department of Special Education at San Francisco Country University and at the Academy of Northern Iowa where he served as a coordinator of the visual impairment programs. He has conducted research in the areas of braille reading, assistive engineering, and expanded core curriculum of students with visual impairments. His research calendar is aimed at promoting equal admission to educational opportunities including curriculum materials, classroom activities, and other schoolhouse programs of students who are blind or visually impaired with or without additional disabilities.  Dr. Hong has engaged in several grant activities through the Office of Special Instruction Programs and attracted over 2.5 one thousand thousand external funding.

Academy OF NORTHERN COLORADO