Dr. William Kiernan

Meeting of March 15, 2011 - Employment of People with Mental Disabilities

William E. Kiernan is the Director of the Institute for Community Inclusion (University Center on Excellence in Developmental Disabilities) and Research Professor in the Graduate College of Education and the McCormack School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. The Institute is a joint program of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and the Children's Hospital also in Boston. For the past 38 years Dr. Kiernan has served in a variety of capacities in the Institute for Community Inclusion, as a senior staff member of the Children's Hospital and been a member of the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Boston for more than 20 years.

Dr. Kiernan has served as an international consultant in seven countries in the development of adult service systems for persons with disabilities and has provided training and technical assistance in more than 45 states. He is the author of more than 125 articles and reports in the field of disabilities with a specific emphasis on transition, employment, public policy development, workforce development and systemic change. Dr. Kiernan has been a member of several national boards, has served as the President of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) (formerly the American Association on Mental Retardation) as well as the President of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD).

In addition to holding a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation and Special Education from Boston College, he has a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling and a second Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Health Care Management from Boston University.