Valerie Owen, PhD

Valerie Owen, Ph.D., is the Director of the Disability and Equity in Education Doctoral Program and teaches in a graduate special education program preparing "change of career adults" to become teachers. She began her career 30 years ago as a classroom teacher of children with autism as well as those considered the most significantly disabled. In addition to being a founding member and former officer in the Disability Studies in Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association, she a founder of the Second City Disability Studies and Education Conference. As such, she works to support a community of education scholars who critically examines the interplay of disability and various aspects of society and culture through research, practice, teacher education and activism. Her scholarship and publications focus on re-imagining teaching, assuring progress in the general education curriculum for all students, and critical perspectives of professional teaching standards.