Cognitive Support Technology and Vocational Rehabilitation: Approaches for Postsecondary Students With a Traumatic Brain Injury #91

MON, 31 OCT // 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Primary Content Focus: Brain Injury

Secondary Content Focus: Technology (e.g. prosthetics/orthotics, robotics, assistive technology), Clinical practice (assessment, diagnosis, treatment, knowledge translation/EBP)

This instructional course will provide successful findings and promising practices through didactic and interactive information sharing and training. It will explain how successful academic and career-based employment placements can occur. Its emphasis is on cognitive support technology selection by matching with biopsychosocial functioning, vocational rehabilitation, case management, and career mentoring. This course, provided by Project Career’s Technology and Employment Coordinators (TECs), Directors, and Evaluator, will provide insight on use of iPads and supporting apps, the Matching Person Technology Tool, lessons learned, promising practices, and action planning.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand the barriers and supporting research students with a traumatic brain injury experience (TBI) experience in academia and employment
Understand Project Career’s evaluation-based promising practices, findings, and lessons learned in integrating cognitive support technologies (CSTs), vocational rehabilitation counseling, and mentoring
Understand and experience matching CST selections with students’ biopsychosocial functioning by using the MPT Assessment Tool
Address identified participant challenges in providing education to students with a TBI by developing takeaway action plans
Experience Project Career STAR portal benefits as a nationwide stakeholder informational resource

KEY WORDS

Brain Injuries
Self-Help Devices
Technology
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Rehabilitation, Vocational

FACULTY

Phillip Rumrill, PhD, CRC
Professor and Director, Center for Disability Studies, Rehabilitation Counseling Program, Kent State University

Dr. Rumrill is a professor and coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling Program and founding director of the Center for Disability Studies at Kent State University in Ohio. He is also the director of the Multiple Sclerosis Employment Assistance Service, which provides vocational services and supports to people with multiple sclerosis across the United States. A nationally certified rehabilitation counselor, Dr. Rumrill received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Keene State College in New Hampshire and his doctorate from the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Marcia Scherer
President, Institute for Matching Person Technology

Dr. Scherer has managed many research projects and research staff members. In 1997, she formed the Institute for Matching Person and Technology to enhance the quality of life of technology users through research, assessment, training, and consultation. The Institute has been involved in several NIDRR centers as the lead organization on specific research and development projects. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, and the New York Academy of Sciences. Dr. Scherer is on the editorial board of Disability and Rehabilitation and edits the journal Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology.

Ms. Eileen Elias
Senior Policy Associate, Disability and Mental Health, JBS International

Eileen Elias is an internationally recognized expert on disability-based healthcare reform and systems integration for all age groups, including civilians and service members. Disability groups include individuals with psychiatric disabilities, intellectual/developmental disabilities with behavioral disorders, traumatic brain injury, trauma, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and co-occurring disorders (i.e., intellectual/developmental disability and substance use disorders, chronic medical disorders). She is recognized for her effective work in mentoring graduate students and professionals.

Dr. Deborah Hendricks
Principal Investigator, Job Accommodation Network, International Center for Disability Information and Clinical Associate Professor, West Virginia University

DJ Hendricks is the associate director of the International Center for Disability Information (ICDI) at West Virginia University (WVU). She serves as the principal investigator for three projects: the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) funded by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, the WVU implementation site of Project Career as a subcontractor to Kent State University, and the Mobile Accommodation Tool funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Hendricks has worked at WVU for over 35 years and has been with the JAN project since its inception in 1983.

Karen Jacobs, EdD, OTR/L, CPE, FAOTA
Clinical Professor and Program Director, On-line Post-professional Doctorate in Occupational Therapy, Boston University

Dr. Jacobs is a past president and vice president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). She is a 2005 recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Akureyri in Akuryeri, Iceland; the 2009 recipient of the Award of Merit from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT); received the Award of Merit from the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2003; and the 2011 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship Award. The title of her Slagle Lecture was: PromOTing Occupational Therapy: Words, Images and Action.

Anne Leopold, MSc
Project Manager, JBS International

Ms. Leopold is a research analyst for JBS International’s (JBS) Disability Services Center (DSC) and a project manager in JBS’s Research and Evaluation Division. She works on several contracts with a range of topics, including prescription drug abuse and overdose prevention and health IT/telehealth. Ms. Leopold has diverse experience in research and research to practice in the area of disability including the identification of best and promising practices and working collaboratively with external stakeholders on creating initiatives to improve the long-term outcomes and community integration of individuals with disabilities. She provides support in the development and management of disability initiatives and research projects, including systematic literature reviews; journal publications; program development and evaluation; qualitative and quantitative data analysis; white paper development; review of US and international government bills, statutes, and executive orders. She also manages the implementation and execution of contracts by providing consultation, project management, and technical assistant. Previously she was a research associate for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH/NINDS) Vietnam Head Injury Study. Ms. Leopold studied psychology at Smith College and received her Master’s Degree in Social and Health Psychology from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Ms. Callista L. Stauffer, MEd
Technology and Employment Coordinator, Kent State University

Ms/ Stauffer, MEd, Rehabilitation Counseling; MEd, Higher Education Administration; BS in Education, is currently the technology and employment coordinator in the Center for Disability Studies at Kent State University. Ms. Stauffer has held a number of relevant positions working with students with disabilities. Her experience includes: project coordinator with the Center for Disability Studies at Kent State University, where she provided administrative support services for funded projects and grants; and transition youth coordinator with the Ohio Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, where she counseled and provided vocational services for transition-age youth with disabilities. Ms. Stauffer has more than 35 years of experience in higher education, where she has worked coordinating academic programs, managing educational research projects, organizing conferences and other events, and administering budgets and personnel policies. Ms. Stauffer has also served as co-chair of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ Region IV-East Disability Concerns Network. She has served as the external evaluator for numerous grant-funded research projects, worked with several school districts to establish data-driven curricula, and consulted with public and private-sector organizations regarding qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

Elaine Sampson, MS, CRC
Technology and Employment Coordinator Project Career, West Virginia University

Ms. Sampson is the technology and employment coordinator for Project Career at West Virginia University. Ms. Sampson joined Project Career in November, 2013. Her primary responsibilities include working with students with traumatic brain injury, determining which cognitive support technologies will best assist these students, providing training on these technologies, supplying training materials in a variety of formats, one-on-one case management to assist with academic and employment goals, mentor matching, internship and employment assistance and post-graduation services. Prior to Project Career, Ms. Sampson was a visiting instructor with the Rehabilitation Counseling program at West Virginia University where her primary areas of instruction were graduate-level rehabilitation counseling classes and undergraduate counseling classes. During this time, Ms. Sampson also served as the clinical coordinator for the Rehabilitation Counseling program, assisting students with practicum and internship placements. Ms. Sampson is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor with a diverse professional background that includes military service and extensive volunteer work with military members and their families. She was honorably discharged from the United States Army after serving five years as a journalist. She has received numerous volunteer awards for her service to military families.

Ms. Amanda Nardone
Technology and Employment Coordinator Project Career, Boston University

Ms. Nardone is the technology and employment coordinator for the Boston University Project Career site, a 5- year NIDRR grant funded program. Project Career is an interprofessional, multi-site, development project designed to improve the employment success of undergraduate college and university students with traumatic brain injury (TBI). In addition to poster presentations, she has presented on Project Career at the 2015 Massachusetts Association for Occupational Therapy annual conference, and the 2015 Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts’ Annual Conference. In March and April 2016, she will be leading workshops on Project Career at the 2016 Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts Annual Conference and the American Occupational Therapy Association annual conference in Chicago, IL. Prior to working with Project Career, Amanda worked with a non-profit organization called Heading Home, Inc, providing services to single adults with disabilities in permanent supported housing units in the Boston area.