Progressive Employment: Content Experts

Meet the Progressive Employment Team

Housed at the Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston and partnering entities, Progressive Employment (PE) experts have worked together to build the PE model from the ground up. Staff expertise includes vocational rehabilitation and employment service delivery, research and evaluation, training, technical assistance, knowledge translation, and instructional media. For more information about PE, contact Kelly.Haines@umb.edu.  For media inquiries, email Quinn.Barbour@umb.edu. 

Kelly Haines (Principal Investigator)

Kelly Haines is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Community Inclusion. Her background is in providing direct services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and she is a trained social science researcher in the field of disability studies.

At the ICI, Kelly has worked on several federally funded national rehabilitation research, training, and technical assistance centers promoting employment for individuals with disabilities since 2009. She has managed quantitative and qualitative research efforts including secondary data analysis, case studies, focus groups, surveys, quasi-experimental studies, and randomized control trials in the field of vocational rehabilitation.

 

Susan Foley (Principal Investigator)

Dr. Susan Foley has focused her research activities on studying vocational rehabilitation practices and innovations in the improved employment outcomes of people with disabilities. She leads multiple national centers funded through the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has worked with more than 30 state VR agencies and is currently active in identifying innovations happening within agencies, transporting them to other agencies, and testing for advances in outcomes.

 

Cecilia Gandolfo

Cecilia Gandolfo is a program director at the Institute for Community Inclusion, where she brings knowledge, skills, and experience to a wide range of local, regional, and national projects. She provides team leadership for the implementation of technical assistance and training projects focused on improving services to and employment opportunities, outcomes, and support for individuals with disabilities.

 

Julisa Cully

Julisa Cully is the knowledge translation program director at the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI). She has over 15 years of experience developing, managing, and implementing disability programs.

Julisa has held leadership roles in direct service, program implementation, and research. At the ICI, she oversees research and technical assistance centers focused on the inclusion on people with disabilities and multiple barriers in employment.

 

Linda Mock

Linda is a senior policy advisor and program specialist at the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI). She brings over 40 years of experience working in vocational rehabilitation (VR) and special education.

Linda spent the majority of her career working for the Oregon Commission for the Blind (OCB), beginning as a rehabilitation teacher and VR counselor, and serving as the agency administrator for her last 12 years there. At OCB, she was instrumental in developing an innovative transition program, placed a strong emphasis on employment, and implemented a computerized caseload management system. She also served as a member of Oregon’s Workforce Investment Board.

 

Shahrzad Sajadi

Shahrzad Sajadi is a research and knowledge translation associate on the ExploreVR team. In this role, she connects the experiences of the research and evaluation teams to the work of the Knowledge Translation team. Shahrzad is a PhD student at the UMass School for Global Inclusion and Social Development. As a researcher, she focuses on the criminal legal systems’ failures to include marginalized groups, including refugees in informal settlements and incarcerated individuals with mental health disabilities. Shahrzad believes that listening to peoples’ stories is the best way to recognize their agency and restore their voices, which guides her research and work at ICI.

 

 

Partners

• Mathematica
• Disability Policy Consortium