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Kathryn Moss, Principal Investigator | Leah Ranney, Project Coordinator | Rachel West, Social Research Assistant | Tonya Jenkins, Student Research Associate

Scott Burris, Legal Consultant | Jeffrey Swanson, Statistical Consultant

Joy Weeber, Coordinator | Karen Hirsch | Andy Imperato | Kathy Martinez | Claudia Center | Carol Hubbard | Erica Jones | Tia Nelis | Jeff Rosen | Charles Walker

Kathryn Moss, the Principal Investigator of the research group, is a research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill and adjunct associate professor in the school of social work at the same institution. Dr. Moss earned her PhD in social policy in 1980 at Brandeis University.

Dr. Moss's research and publication interests addressed disability policy generally and the implementation of such policies, more specifically. Recently, she is focusing much of her attention on health services for people with disabilities.

• Principal Investigator, Resolving ADA Employment Discrimination Charges, National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2000-present.
• Principal Investigator, Psychiatric Disability/ADA/Employment Discrimination, National Institute of Mental Health, 1998- present.
• Research Fellow, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1997-Present.
• Adjunct Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Social Work. September 1994 - present.
• Principal Investigator, Contract with the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Assessment of Health Services Research Needs and Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities September 2001-April 2002.
• Principal Investigator, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Former Thomas S. Class Members and Employment in North Carolina.
• Principal Investigator, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Factors That Influence Thomas S. Class Members' Outcome-Based Performance Measures: A Research and Training Project. July 1, 1997 - June 30, 1998.
• Distinguished Research Fellow, National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. September, 1995 - September, 1996.
• Contract Researcher, US Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, November 1995.
• Contract Researcher, Mental Health Policy Resource Center, Washington DC 1990 - 1995.
• Contract Researcher, Integrated Health Strategies, Cambridge, MA. 1995.
• Contract Researcher, Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc. Boston. 1994 - 1995.
• Assistant Professor, State University of NY/Stony Brook, School of Social Welfare. 1984-1990.
• Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work. 1979-1984.

Ongoing:

Psychiatric Disorders/ADA/Employment Discrimination. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. This study compares ADA Title I administrative complaints and lawsuits involving people with psychiatric disabilities to those involving people with other kinds of disabilities.

Resolving ADA Employment Discrimination Charges. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. This study examines ADA administrative complaints about employment discrimination filed by people with all kinds of disabilities. The results of the study are disseminated in easy-to-understand and accessible formats to people with disabilities, their key support people, and others concerned with their welfare.

Recently Completed:

Assessment of Health Services Research Needs and Opportunity for Persons with Disability. Funded by federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This study was commissioned by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to review published research and current research on primary healthcare for people with disabilities.

• 2002. Moss, K., Swanson, J., Ullman, M., Burris, S. Mediation of Employment Discrimination Disputes Involving Persons with Psychiatric Disabilities. Psychiatric Services 53(8): 988-994.
• 2001. Moss, K., Burris, S., Ullman, M., Johnsen, M., Swanson, J. Unfunded Mandate: An Empirical Study of the Implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.The University of Kansas Law Review
• 2001. Ullman, M., Johnsen, K. Moss, K., Burris, S., Streamlining the Process: The EEOC's Charge Priority Handling System and Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities. Psychiatric Services 52(5): 644-649.
• 2001. Burris, S., Moss, K., Ullman, M. Johnsen, M., Disputing Under the Americans with Disabilities Act: Empirical Answers, and Some Questions. Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review 9(2): 237-252.
• 2000. Burris, S. and Moss, K., A Roadmap for ADA Title I Research. In Blanck, P.D. (Ed.) Employment, Disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Issues in Law, Public Policy, and Research (pp. 19-50). Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press.
• 2000. Moss, K., The ADA Employment Discrimination Charge Process: How Does it Work and Who is it Benefiting? In Blanck, P.D. (Ed.) Employment, Disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Issues in Law, Public Policy, and Research. (pp. 118-145). Northwestern University Press.
• 2000. Moss, K., Filing an ADA Employment Discrimination Charge: Making It Work for You. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: Center for Mental Health Services.
• 1999. Moss, K., Johnsen, M., Starrett, B., Ullman, M., Burris, S., From Employment Rights Under the ADA to Actual Outcomes. Psychiatric Services (50) 1028-1037.
• 1999. Moss, K., Ullman, M., Johnsen, M., Starrett, B. E., Burris, S., Different Paths to Justice: The ADA, Employment and Administrative Enforcement by the EEOC and FEPAs. Behavioral Sciences and the Law (17) 29-46.
• 1999. Moss K; Ullman M; Starrett BE; Burris S; Johnsen MC. Outcomes of employment discrimination charges filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act.. Psychiatric Serv. 50(8): 1028-35.
• 1998. Moss K., Johnsen M., Ullman M.. Assessing employment discrimination charges filed by individuals with psychiatric disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Journal of Disability Policy Studies. 9(1): 81-105.
• 1997. Moss K., Johnsen M.. Employment discrimination and the ADA: A study of administrative complaint process. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. 21(2): 111-21, 1997.
• 1996. Moss K.. Psychiatric disabilities, employment discrimination charges and the ADA. Silver Spring, MD: The National Rehabilitation Information Center.
• 1996. Moss K.. Psychiatric disabilities and employment discrimination charges under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Washington, DC: Center for Mental Health Services National Mental Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network.
• 1992. Moss K. Implications of employment complaints field by people with mental disabilities. Washington, DC: Mental Policy Resource Center., 1992.
• 1987. Moss K.. The Baby Doe Legislation: Its rise and fall. Policy Studies Journal. 15(4): 629-51.
• 1985. Moss K.. The catalytic effect of a federal court decision on a state legislature. Law and Society Review. 19(1): 147-157.

Leah Ranney serves as project coordinator for studies conducted by our research group . Dr. Ranney designs and tests research instruments and assists in the development and monitoring of budgets, project timelines, data collection processes, and evaluation activities. Among her various responsibilities, Dr. Ranney coordinates grant proposal submissions, hires staff, and supervises the administrative duties of the Social Research Associate.

Dr. Ranney received her bachelor's and doctorate at North Carolina State University, and her master's at San Diego State University. Her pervious positions include Research Assistant for a Breast and Cervical Cancer Evaluation Program, Evaluation Assistant for the Wake County School System, and a psychology course instructor for North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Rachel West serves as a Social Research Associate on our ADA research projects. She coordinates the collection of data from US District courts and Federal Record Centers. She is also coordinating dissemination of project publications and has developed a reference data base for them. She is the primary contact for project activities, such as Advisory Board meetings and conferences.

Ms. West received her B.A. in Psychology and Women's Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996. Since then, she has pursued her interest in research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Duke University Medical Center, and the Research Triangle Institute. Ms. West has focused on data collection and organization.

Scott Burris has been a member of the Temple Law School faculty since 1991. He is also Associate Director, Center for Law and the Public's Health, and Senior Associate, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Formerly an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, he has also served as law clerk to Judge (now Chief Judge) Dolores Sloviter of the Third Circuit United States Court of Appeals. He is a graduate of Yale Law School. He received his B.A. from Washington University.

He has written extensively in the areas of HIV and public health law. He is the editor of AIDS Law Today: A New Guide for the Public (1993.) His work has been supported by grants from foundations including The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Lindesmith Center. He serves on numerous advisory committees on matters relating to the intersection of public health and law.

Professor Burris' publications include:

• The Law and the Public's Health: A Study of Infectious Disease Law in the United States, 99 Columbia L. Rev. 59 (1999).
• Dental Discrimination Against the HIV-Infected: Empirical Data, Law and Public Policy, 13 Yale J. Reg. 1 (1996).
• Legal Strategies for Syringe Exchange in the United States, 86 Am. J. Pub. Health 1161 (1996)

Mr. Burris's web site address is : http://www2.law.temple.edu/files/facres/burrisres.pdf

Jeffrey Swansonis a medical sociologist (Ph.D., Yale, 1985) who studies the link between violent behavior and psychiatric disorders and how public policy remedies discrimination among persons with disabilities. He is currently an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Swanson's current research focuses on how community-based mental health treatment and policy reduces the risk of violence among persons with severe, persistent mental illness.

In the first randomized clinical trial of involuntary outpatient commitment - a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health -- Dr. Swanson and his colleagues are examining whether court-ordered treatment for the severely mentally ill reduces the risk of violent behavior, re-hospitalization, arrest, and other outcomes. The team will soon begin a large-scale trial in North Carolina to find out if advance planning for psychiatric care can potentially lessen the need for legal and informal coercion in mental health services delivery.

Dr. Swanson has also written a book about missionaries, which examines the relationship between religious experience and personal identity construction in the context of cultural marginality.

Dr. Swanson's web site address is : http://faculty.duke.edu/faculty/info?pid=1917

Disability Rights Activist

Joy Weeber is a nationally recognized disability rights activist in North Carolina and works to change how society views disabled people and how disabled people view themselves through her speaking, teaching and research. She is Board Chair of the Ron Mace Center for Disability Community Development and a board member of NC Vote for America. She is currently completing her Ph.D. work at North Carolina State University in Counselor Education researching disability identity development. She is an active member of the Society for Disability Studies, American Counseling Association, NC Counseling Association, Access to Design Professions Task Force, ADAPT and Not Dead Yet, national grassroots disability rights organizations. Joy lives in an accessible historic home in Raleigh with her 11 lb. poodle who provides 24-hr security.

Affiliate Assistant Professor at the Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Dr. Hirsch's professional interests include a practical implementation of inclusive education in K-12 schools as well as an effective training for all teachers in inclusive school practices. She is interested in a cultural and historical approach to disability studies, with emphasis on the disability rights movement.

Dr. Hirsch has founded two Centers for Independent Living, Tri-State Resource and Advocacy Corporation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1987, and Rural Advocacy for Independent Living in Kirksville, Missouri, 1993. She has worked as Program Director at Paraquad, Inc., in St. Louis, MO, and at IMPACT, Inc., in Alton IL, and has taught in the Division of Education at Truman State University. She was a research consultant for the COSP project at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, 1999-2002.

She has been involved in conducting oral history interviews for "The Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Oral History Project," funded by NIDRR, at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Her article, "Culture and Disability: The Role of Oral History," was published in the Oral History Review in the summer of 1995. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1984.

President and Chief Executive Officer, American Association of People with Disabilities

Andrew J. Imparato is the first full-time President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a national non-profit, non-partisan membership organization of people with disabilities, their family members and supporters. Founded in 1995, AAPD supports the AAPD Leadership Awards Program, National Disability Mentoring Day, and the Disability Vote Project.

Before joining AAPD in 1999, Mr. Imparato was general counsel and director of policy for the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency advising the President and Congress on public policy issues affecting people with disabilities. He has also worked as a special assistant to Commissioner Paul Steven Miller at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy; and as a Skadden fellow/staff attorney at the Disability Law Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mr. Imparato, whose perspective is informed by his own experience with bipolar disorder, is frequently called upon to write, speak or provide testimony about disability issues. He has testified before various U.S. Senate Committees. Also, he sits on the Board of Directors of the Center for Bioethics, Culture and Disability and the U.S. International Council on Disability.

Mr. Imparato is a member of the Accessibility Advisory Group for America Online and a member of the Consumer Advisory Forum for Blue Cross/Blue Shield Associations. He graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School and is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale College.

Disability Management Consultant

Kathy Martinez, an accomplished trainer and keynote speaker, has been blind since birth. She breaks the barriers of myth and stereotype by educating her audiences using humor and practical approaches toward working with customers with disabilities. She discusses case histories of companies, which successfully include customers with disabilities in their marketing and service strategies.

In addition to her work nationally with a variety of corporations in the Service Industry, Kathy has addressed international audiences in Beijing, Jakarta, Budapest, Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, Siberia, Namibia and Washington D.C. Ms. Martinez has also served as an expert witness in U.S. Federal court, providing testimony on ADA implementation and the needs and accommodations of visually impaired individuals.

Ms. Martinez directs IDEAS 2000, a complex five-year international grant of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, which requires management of a collaborative process among five US-based international disability organizations.

Ms Martinez's web site address is: http://www.kathymartinez.com

Staff Attorney, Legal Aid Society ­ Employment Law Center

Claudia Center, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, represents plaintiffs in employment discrimination litigation, and specializes in disability law. In 1997, she started the LIBRA Project, a special initiative to advance the employment rights of persons with mental health conditions. She graduated from law school at the University of California at Berkeley in 1992. Prior to coming to the LAS-ELC, Claudia was a staff attorney at the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in Washington, D.C. She obtained her B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1987.

Ms. Center's web site address is: http://www.las-elc.org/

Executive Director, ACCESS Independent Living

Carol Hubbard has a bachelor's degree in psychology from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Masters of Social Work, completed in a single year, from the University of Tennessee. For 25 years she has served as a licensed social worker. She was instrumental in founding ACCESS IL in 1999. Ms. Hubbard experienced brain injury in 1977 from viral encephalitis.

Ms. Hubbard is a graduate of Leadership Asheville 19 and serves on the Pisgah Legal Services Board of Directors. She is a member of numerous groups and organizations, including the Dandelion Fund Board of Directors, the NC Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, Directors of Volunteers in Agencies, the National Conference of Independent Living, and the Mayors Committee for People with Disabilities. She also participates in UNC-Asheville's Equal Access student support group. She was recently appointed to serve on the statewide Developmental Disabilities Council by Gov. Easley.

Ms. Hubbard's web site address is: http://www.access-wnc.org/aboutus.html

Principal Investigator and Director, Pacific Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center

Erica Jones has been the Principal Investigator and Director of the Pacific Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center since 1991. Pacific DBTAC, run by the Public Health Institute, Berkeley, California, works with the Departments of Justice, Transportation, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the FCC to implement the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Over the past twenty-two years, Ms. Jones has been dedicated to working with large and small communities, in both the public and private sector, as a change agent, facilitator, and collaborator for total inclusion of persons with disabilities for the enhancement of society.

As a consultant to the University of San Francisco's "Disability Recruitments and Retention through Community Partnerships," Ms. Jones developed curriculum and served as a Project Trainer. She has been the Principal Investigator on many grants and contracts and in the evaluation of projects and national model programs. She was Director of Public Affairs for the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, directing and conducting a national public affairs program. As Executive Director of the Hawaii Centers for Independent Living, she coordinated a business advisory council and assisted previously underserved individuals with severe disabilities, ethnic minorities or disadvantaged populations.

Her web site address is: http://www.pacdbtac.org/

President, People First of Illinois

Tia Nelis lives in Naperville, Illinois and lives with her family. She works at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UAP) Rehabilitation and Research and Training Center on Aging and Mental Retardation, as a Self-Advocacy Specialist.

She is also the president of People First of Illinois, and co-chairman of the national organization Self Advocates Becoming Empowered. She was on the Illinois Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities for two years, and on its executive and legislative committees, as well. Ms. Nelis has written manuals on choice making, and a leadership booklet on how to include people with disabilities in research.

Ms. Nelis is also an Editor for Community Advocacy Press.

Jeff Rosen wears many hats and plays many leadership roles in the disability community. Most essentially, though, he wants it to be known that "he is a born and reared disability advocate."

Doctoral Student, North Carolina State University

Charles Walker is a counselor and works as a consultant on local, state and national ADA issues. Walker's research interests include accessibility issues for persons with disabilities and the identity development of blind and visually impaired persons. As a blindness expert, Walker developed one of the world's first identity development models for blind and visually impaired individuals. His scholarship, consultation, advocacy and Faith commitments include working to remove and eliminate socially constructed institutionalized attitudinal barriers that cause physically impaired persons to be disabled.

Mr. Walker evaluates websites for accessibility compliance. He also trains and instructs blind and visually impaired people in the use of adaptive computer equipment. Among the numerous honors and awards that he has received, he is proudest of receiving an award for parent of the year. Charles L. Walker and Walker Consulting can be contacted via e-mail at cwalker4@nc.rr.com.