Overview

Date: October 3, 2006 - October 4, 2006

Location: Princeton, New Jersey

As the number of students with learning disabilities attending colleges and universities has grown dramatically over the past thirty years, so too have the number of issues faced by students, parents, and educators.  These changes include:

• an increase in the hot button issues surrounding high school exit exams and college admissions testing for students with learning disabilities,
• an increased prevalence of college students with disabilities including an increase in the number of students with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD),
• changes in the laws and the documentation requirements for high school and college students and the expectations between high school and college for students with learning disabilities,
• a new emphasis on high expectations for transition planning in students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs),
• growth in the number of colleges for students with learning disabilities and programs within colleges focused on providing services to students with learning disabilities,
• growth in assistive technologies that increase learning opportunities and independence in higher education,
• changes to the reporting of admission test scores for students with learning disabilities who received testing accommodations.

This symposium focused on the educational and legal changes and how they impact college opportunities, transitions, and outcomes for students with learning disabilities.  Participants included parents, school administrators, guidance counselors, college admissions professionals, postsecondary disability coordinators, researchers, and members of learning disabilities advocacy groups.

Speakers

The following were speakers for the conference:

• Manju Banerjee, University of Connecticut – Storrs
• Jose Blackorby, SRI International
• Loring Brinckerhoff, ETS
• Cara Cahalan-Laitusis, ETS
• Linda Cook, ETS
• Penny Dragonetti, Family Support Center of New Jersey 
• Noel Gregg, University of Georgia
• Salome Heyward, Salome Heyward & Associates
• Sheldon Horowitz, National Center for Learning Disabilities
• Stevan Kukic, Sopris West Educational Services
• Kurt Landgraf, ETS
• Deborah Lazarus, College Board
• Corey Leneker, Evergreen State College
• Catherine Millett, ETS
• Michael Nettles, ETS
• Diana Pullin, Boston College
• Jim Rein, B&R Resources, Inc. 
• Peter Rice, Middlesex County College
• Piedad Robertson
• Arlyn Roffman, Lesley University
• Glenn Schroeder, ETS
• Michael Shuttic, Association for Higher Education and Disabilities 
• Martha Thurlow, Nation Center on Educational Outcomes
• Richard Varn, RJV Consulting
• Vincent Varrassi, Fairleigh Dickinson University
• James Wendorf, National Center for Learning Disabilities

Manju Banerjee
Research and Education Consultant
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Manju Banerjee is a research and education consultant with over 20 years experience in working with students with learning and other disabilities. Formerly, she was director of Disability Services and adjunct faculty at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Banerjee is a certified diagnostician and teacher-consultant for learning disabilities. She has worked as a postsecondary disability service provider, vocational rehabilitation counselor, and researcher for many years. Banerjee has published and presented both nationally and internationally on topics including disability documentation and assessment, technology mediated learning, and distance education. Her areas of research include technological competencies for college students with learning disabilities and universal design in high stakes assessment. Currently, she is a research consultant for ETS, and is enrolled in the doctoral program at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

Jose Blackorby
Associate Center Director
SRI International

Jose Blackorby, program manager for the Disability Policy Program and associate director in the Center for Education and Human Services, brings 15 years of experience in conducting and managing large-scale, multifaceted studies with research, policy and practice implications. He has authored or co-authored SRI reports and journal articles that have been an important source of information for the development of state and federal policy regarding special education, education reform and innovation, charter schools, and human services coordination.

Blackorby is co-director of the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS) and is on the research team for the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2). A key contribution to these studies is his design and oversight of the direct assessments of students’ abilities in reading and mathematics and, for secondary school students, content knowledge in science and social studies. He coordinated the efforts of an advisory group of nationally known assessment and disability experts in developing and field testing the direct assessment instruments, an alternative assessment and a process for determining and meeting students’ needs for accommodations.

Loring Brinckerhoff
Director, Office of Disability Policy
ETS

Loring Brinckerhoff is the director of the Office of Disability Policy for ETS and the education and disability consultant to Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) and Harvard Medical School. Brinckerhoff received his doctorate in learning disabilities from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and initiated support services to students with learning disabilities on that campus in 1983. He is the past president of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and former secretary of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities.

Brinckerhoff has provided technical assistance to over 200 colleges in the United States and Canada on topics related to transition from high school to college, college programming, self-advocacy and legal rights, universal design, and program evaluation. He is the author of over 30 articles, book chapters, and co-author of one of the leading texts in the field, Postsecondary Education and Transition for Students with Learning Disabilities (2002).

Cara Cahalan-Laitusis
Research Scientist
ETS

Cara Cahalan-Laitusis is a research scientist in the Center for Validity Research at ETS. She received a Ph.D. in school psychology from Fordham University. Prior to joining ETS, Cahalan-Laitusis worked as a school psychologist in Connecticut and as a research consultant on USAID educational projects in Malawi and Ghana. Since coming to ETS in 1998, Cahalan-Laitusis has been involved in research on validity and fairness, including examining the impact of testing accommodations on test score validity, differential item functioning for students with disabilities and English language learners, gender differences in mathematical problem solving, and differential performance (by gender, race and language groups) on paper-based and computer-based test formats. Currently, she is a project director and principal investigator on the Designing Accessible Reading Assessments project and the Technology-Assisted Reading Assessments project, both of which are funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Linda Cook
Principal Research Scientist
ETS

Linda Cook is a principal research scientist in the Research Division at ETS. She received her Ed.D. in educational measurement and statistics from the University of Massachusetts in 1979, her M.E.D. in education of the deaf from Smith College in 1972, and her B.S. in chemistry from Ursinus College in 1960. Her primary research interests are evaluating the validity and fairness of assessments for individuals with disabilities and English language learners.

Cook has served in a number of roles since coming to ETS.  She began her career in the analysis area, where she led the measurement work done on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT®/NMSQT) and the SAT® II Subject tests. She left the analysis area to take a position as executive director of the admissions and guidance area. After spending five years as executive director of the admissions and guidance area, she left this position to become vice president of the newly formed Assessment Division at ETS. Cook returned to the Research & Development area following the decentralization of the Assessment Division, where she pursues a research agenda designed to design and develop assessments with increased accessibility for all students.

Cook is a member of AERA, NCME and APA Division 5.  Her professional activities outside of ETS consist of serving as a member of the NCME Board of Directors and as incoming vice president of AREA Division D.

Penny Dragonetti
Director of Training & Education
Family Support Center of New Jersey

Penny Dragonetti is the director of Education & Training at the Family Support Center of New Jersey, developing and conducting information sessions for parents and professionals on behalf of the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities on issues related to educational and life-long needs of individuals with developmental disabilities in New Jersey. Before joining the staff at the Family Support Center, Dragonetti was the director of Parent & Personnel Development at the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN, NJ) developing and conducting training sessions for parents and professionals on issues related to education and children with special needs throughout northern New Jersey. Dragonetti also coordinated a regional project for SPAN, providing technical assistance to Parent Centers throughout the Northeast area of the United States.

Dragonetti was the president of GRASE (Glen Ridge Association for Special Education), the district’s parent group for nine years between 1993 - 2002, and has a child with special needs.  She is the recipient of the first Diana Cuthbertson Parent Professional Collaboration Award for her ongoing work on behalf of children in New Jersey and is chair of the Board of Trustees of the Partnership for the Children of Essex, Essex County’s Care Management Organization. Penny holds a B.A. in psychology from Thomas Edison State College, New Jersey.

Noel Gregg
Director, Center for Learning Disorders
University of Georgia

Noel Gregg, Ph.D., is a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia, as well as director of the UGA Regents’ Center for Learning Disorders and head of research for the Georgia Alternative Media Access Center. Her areas of specialization include adolescents and adults with learning disabilities and AD/HD, accommodations, alternative media, assessment, and written-language disorders. She has published widely, and her forthcoming book, Research-Based Best Practice: Assessing and Accommodating the Adolescent and Adult Populations with Learning Disabilities and AD/HD, is currently in press.

Salome Heyward
President
Salome Heyward & Associates

Salome Heyward, a civil rights attorney with over 26 years experience in the field of disability discrimination law and disability management, is the president of Salome Heyward & Associates. 

Heyward is the author of Higher Education and Disability (LRP Publication, 2004); The FMLA Handbook (2001), Graduate Schools and the ADA ( 001); and Access to Education for the Disabled, as well as numerous articles and publications concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Rehabilitation Act.

Heyward is frequently sought out to provide legal background for media productions concerning disability issues (e.g., NBC, CNN, ESPN, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Chronicle of Higher Education). She is a well-known and respected speaker and trainer in the area of disability discrimination law and disability management. She has been a featured presenter for national associations and organizations such as the American Association for Affirmative Action, the Association of Higher Education and Disability, the Council of State Governments, the National Association of State Personnel and the International Learning Disabilities Association. Heyward’s firm has provided training products and services to over 450 clients in the past three years.

Sheldon Horowitz
Director of Professional Services
National Center for Learning Disabilities

Sheldon Horowitz is the director of professional services at the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). Prior to his arrival at NCLD in 1996, he served as the associate director of the Learning Diagnostic Center at Schneider Children’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) in New Hyde Park, N.Y. He also held the position of assistant unit chief, educational supervisor, and grand rounds chairperson of the Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Horowitz has taught at primary, secondary and college levels, and worked as a consultant to school districts throughout the New York City metropolitan region. His interests include neurobiology of learning, educational assessment, fetal alcohol effects in children, language-based learning disabilities, disorders of hyperactivity and attention, and learning disabilities in adolescents.

Horowitz completed his master’s degree at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and holds a doctorate in learning disabilities from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, N.Y., with a specialization in learning disabilities and neurosciences in education.

Horowitz is a regular presenter at professional conferences in the field of special education, and is frequently cited in the popular press on topics including parenting children with special needs, LD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, assessment and evaluation, and LD throughout the lifespan.  He has played leadership roles in many of NCLD’s key projects and programs, including a series of national summits, the Every Child Is Learning training program, the Get Ready to Read! early literacy initiative, and Living with LD, a Web-based resource for adolescents and adults.

Stevan Kukic
Vice President, Professional Services
Sopris West Educational Services

Steve Kukic is vice president of professional services for Sopris West Educational Services, a Cambium Learning company specializing in reaching the tough-to-teach with proven and practical products, programs, professional development and consultation. He is the past chair of the Professional Advisory Board for the National Center for Learning Disabilities. He worked for two years as an independent consultant, primarily with Franklin Covey Company’s Education Division, facilitating the use of principles based on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People with individuals and organizations. Before that, he was Director for At Risk and Special Education for the Utah State Office of Education for 11 years, providing leadership for state and federal programs for children and youth in need. Kukic was president of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education during 1991 and 1992. For five years prior to that, he directed a statewide center for technical assistance related to the education of students with disabilities.

Kukic is the author of over 90 articles, chapters, newspaper columns and books. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in school administration and earned his M.A. in school psychology and B.A. in psychology at UCLA.

Kurt Landgraf
President & CEO
ETS

Kurt Landgraf joined ETS as president and chief executive officer on August 7, 2000.

Formerly, he was chairman and chief executive officer of the DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company, having previously served in several capacities with DuPont since 1980, including executive vice president/chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and chairman of DuPont Europe. He was with The Upjohn Company from 1974 to 1980. Landgraf was associate director of Marketing for ETS from 1970 to 1974. Prior to that, he was a sales representative and brand manager for Johnson & Johnson, Inc., and a mergers and acquisitions intern for Kidder Peabody, Inc. Landgraf has also been an instructor in economics, sociology and labor relations in various colleges throughout the
United States.

Landgraf is a member of the board of directors of IKON Office Solutions, Inc., Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, and Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG). He is also on the board of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). He is a member of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education (appointed by Governor Codey), the ACE Washington Higher Education Secretariat, and the Rock Institute of Ethics at Pennsylvania State University.

Landgraf received his bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Wagner College. He also earned three master’s degrees: in economics from Pennsylvania State University, in administration from Rutgers University, and in sociology from Western Michigan University. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

Deborah Lazarus
Director, School Level Review and
Documentation Review
College Board

Deborah Lazarus is director, School Level Review and Documentation Review, Services for Students with Disabilities, at the College Board. She works with schools and school districts in helping them to understand the eligibility process for students with disabilities who require testing accommodations on College Board tests. She also has a part-time psychotherapy practice in Manhattan. Before joining the College Board in February 2004, Lazarus was a school psychologist in the New York City School system for ten years. Earlier in her career, she taught fourth and fifth grades at the Dalton School in New York City. She graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in history and received her master’s degree in educational psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Lazarus received her doctorate in child/school psychology from New York University.

Corey Leneker
Outreach Coordinator
Evergreen State College

Admissions Officer Corey Leneker has worked in the admission profession since 2000. He currently serves as a senior admissions officer and outreach coordinator for Evening and Weekend Studies. He manages and coordinates Evergreen’s Conditional Admissions programs. Leneker believes deeply in access and opportunity for all students.

Catherine Millett
Research Scientist
Policy Evaluation & Research Center, ETS

Catherine Millett is a research scientist at the Policy Evaluation & Research Center at ETS. Her research focuses on access, persistence and achievement for students from various population groups at the postsecondary level. One area of her current research is on the doctoral student experience. She is a co-author of the book Three Magic Letters: Getting to Ph.D.

She serves on the Technical Review Panel for the Educational Longitudinal Study 2002 (ELS 2002) as well as the Beginning Postsecondary Study 2004/06 (BPS: 2004/06) both sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics. Millett has been a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Millett received a Ph.D. in education from the University of Michigan in 1999. She is also a graduate of Trinity College (B.A. in economics, 1985), the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Ed.M. in administration, planning and social policy, 1990) and the Radcliffe Seminars Program (Graduate Certificate in management, 1994).

Michael Nettles
Senior Vice President
Policy Evaluation & Research Center, ETS

Michael Nettles is senior vice president for Policy Evaluation and Research and holds the Edmund W. Gordon Chair for Policy Evaluation and Research at ETS. He has a national reputation as a policy researcher on educational assessment, student performance and achievement, educational equity, and higher education finance. Nettles’ research covers such issues as educational access, opportunity, attainment, the consequences of education for various population groups in the United States, state and national assessment, educational funding policies, and educational testing of students at all levels of education. His publications reflect his broad interest in public policy, student and faculty access, opportunity, achievement, and educational assessment at both the K-1 and post-secondary levels. Nettles is a co-author of Three Magic Letters: Getting to Ph.D.

A native of Nashville, Nettles received his B.A. in political science from the University of Tennessee, and master’s degrees in political science and in higher education, as well as a Ph.D. in higher education, from Iowa State University.

Diana Pullin
Professor
Boston College Lynch School of Education

Diana Pullin holds both a J.D. degree and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Iowa. She is professor of education law and public policy at Boston College. She also coordinates the Joint Degree Program in Law and Education at the Law School and the Lynch School of Education at the university.

Pullin has served as dean of the School of Education at Boston College and as associate dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University. Pullin was staff attorney, co-director, and then president of the Center for Law and Education of Cambridge, Mass. and Washington, D.C.

Pullin has represented students, parents, teacher unions and educators in federal, district and appellate courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She is co-editor of the interdisciplinary scholarly journal Educational Policy and the author of numerous articles, book chapters, books and technical reports. Her publications have addressed educational testing, the rights of individuals with disabilities, education reform, and the preparation and licensing of educators.

James Rein
President
B & R Resources, Inc.

A nationally respected speaker on postsecondary options for young adults with learning disabilities and Asperger’s Syndrome, James Rein was the dean of the Vocational Independence Program at the New York Institute of Technology for the past twenty years. He has consulted and lectured at many colleges and was a member of the board of trustees at Springfield College. As the former director of the Little Red School House/Elizabeth Irwin High School, Rein is highly knowledgeable about New York-area private schools, and boarding schools throughout the east. He is the founder of the VISTA Program in Westbrook, Conn., and Marburn Academy in Columbus, Ohio. Rein has been active in the summer program field as the founder of the Northwood Camps for Learning Disabled, the Impact Program for Talented and Gifted Children, the Introduction to Independence Program at NYIT, and Camp Homeward Bound for Homeless Children. In addition, he has served as a board member of the American Camping Association and Camp America.

Peter Rice
Director of Admissions
Middlesex County College

Peter Rice has worked in higher education for the past 14 years. He has been director of admissions at Middlesex County College in Edison, N.J., since 2002.

Prior to becoming director of admissions, Rice served as associate director of admissions at Middlesex, and assistant and associate director of admissions at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. An adjunct instructor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Rice has taught Fundamentals of Public Speaking for the past seven years.

He is currently participating in the New Jersey Regional Leadership Academy and is planning on pursuing further graduate study in the area of Leadership Studies.

Rice received an M.A. in corporate communications and a B.A.
in communications/journalism from Seton Hall University.

Piedad Robertson
Former President
Education Commission of the States

Piedad Robertson served as president of Education Commission of the States (ECS) from February 2005 to February 2007. She came to ECS from Santa Monica College, where she oversaw a budget of more than $ 00 million. In her 10 years as president there, she was instrumental in establishing the Academy of Entertainment and Technology, a multimedia center that prepares students for jobs in the entertainment industry. She also served on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Transition Team and was appointed as special assistant to Richard Riordan, secretary for education.

From 1991 to 1995, Robertson served as Massachusetts secretary of education, where she supervised drafting of the comprehensive K-12 Education Reform Act. Some of her other accomplishments included establishing innovative charter schools, working with K-12 and higher education officials to implement a dual-enrollment program, developing and co-chairing a comprehensive plan for establishing a school-to-work system in the state, and establishing the state comprehensive program of Massachusetts On-line.

She served as president of Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and from 1980 to 1988, as vice president for public affairs at Miami-Dade Community College in Miami.

Robertson serves as vice chair on the Board for ETS. She also serves on the American Student Assistance, Gates Millennium Scholars, Council for Higher Education Accreditation, Institute for Education Learning, and KCET boards of directors.

Arlyn Roffman
Professor
Lesley University

Arlyn Roffman is a professor of special education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., where she served as the founding director of the Threshold Program, a non-degree transition program for young adults with LD, from 1981 to 1996. A licensed psychologist, she also maintains a private practice, focusing on the adjustment of adults with learning disabilities.

Roffman earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology at Boston College, an M.Ed. in special education from Lesley University, and a B.A. at Connecticut College. She is the author of numerous articles and chapters on learning disabilities; Rule-ette, a spelling game, published by Educators Publishing Services; and two books, A Classroom Teacher’s Guide to Mainstreaming and Meeting the Challenge of LD in Adulthood. A third book, Parenting Teens with Learning Disabilities: Navigating the Transition from High School to Adulthood is in press at the Princeton Review.

Roffman has served on the professional advisory boards of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Center for Learning Disabilities, the National Adult Literacy and Learning Disability Center, and several other organizations. She has consulted and made conference presentations on issues related to special education and psychology throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Glenn Schroeder
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
ETS

Glenn Schroeder received his B.A. (mathematics), summa cum laude, highest departmental honors, at UCLA in 1975. He obtained his M.A. in mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1976. He received a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was senior editor, Yale Legislative Services, in 1979.

From 1979 to 1987, Schroeder was a member of the Entertainment Law Department, concentrating in the motion picture and television industries, in the Los Angeles law firm of Loeb & Loeb, where he was elected to partnership in 1986. While at Loeb & Loeb, Glenn was involved in a wide variety of transactional work, representing talent, producers and finance companies.

In 1987, Schroeder left Loeb & Loeb to accept the position of general counsel, senior vice president and assistant secretary at Community Television of Southern California, a nonprofit public benefit corporation that owns and operates public television station, KCET. From 1995 until he joined ETS, Schroeder was a member of the Technology/Intellectual Property Practice Group of Preston, Gates & Ellis in Seattle.

Concurrent with the practice of law described above, Schroeder was an adjunct professor in copyright and entertainment law during various academic terms over the past 20 years at Loyola Law School, Whittier Law School and Seattle University School of Law. Schroeder joined ETS as general counsel-designate in March 2005 and assumed the position of senior vice president and general counsel upon the retirement of general counsel Stan von Mayrhauser.

Michael Shuttic
President-Elect
Association on Higher Education and Disability
Oklahoma State University

Michael Shuttic has worked in the field of disabilities for 18 years. With a B.A. in psychology from Kent State University and a graduate of Michigan State University’s Rehab Counseling Master’s program, early professional focus and experiences were in work adjustment training, supported employment, and independent living. While at the University of Kansas as associate director in DSS, other professional involvement included chair of campus Architectural Barriers Committee, chair of NASPA National and IV-W Regional disability Concerns, member/past president of local Kansas Transition Council, Kansas/Missouri regional AHEAD member and treasurer, and member of Assistive Tech for Kansans Project. Currently, Shuttic serves as coordinator of Student Disability Services/ADA Compliance at Oklahoma State. His professional interests and roles include Committee on Campus Access chair, Oklahoma State Transition Council postsecondary rep., and OK-AHEAD board member 2000- 2007 (twice president). Shuttic’s professional association with AHEAD began in 1990 as a member; he has been a board member since 2003. Shuttic is now president-elect.

Martha Thurlow
Director
National Center on Educational Outcomes
University of Minnesota

Martha Thurlow is director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes. In this position, she addresses the implications of contemporary U.S. policy and practice for students with disabilities and English language learners, including national and statewide assessment policies and practices, standardssetting efforts, and graduation requirements. During the past decade, Thurlow has been the principal investigator on 15 federal or state projects that have focused on the participation of students with special needs in large-scale assessments, with particular emphasis on how to obtain valid, reliable, and comparable measures of the knowledge and skills of these students while at the same time ensuring that the assessments are truly measuring their knowledge and skills rather than their disabilities or limited language when these are not the focus of the assessment. Studies have covered a range of topics, including participation decision making, accommodations, computer-based testing, graduation exams, and alternate assessments. Thurlow has published extensively on all of these topics.

Richard J. H. Varn
President
RJV Consulting

Richard Varn is president and founder of RJV Consulting. Since 1988, his firm has served public and private sector clients in the areas of information technology, business strategy, innovation, education and public policy. He is a senior fellow with the Center for Digital Government, the technology policy advisor to the National Retail Federation, and serves on the board of trustees for ETS. He recently served as the first CIO for the City of San Antonio on an interim basis. Previously, he served as the chief technology officer and consultant for the Business Gateway, a federal e-government initiative to implement electronic forms and streamline regulatory processes.

Varn’s first career was in public service, beginning in 1978 at the University of Iowa and continuing in 1981 as a state legislative aide. He went on to win elected office in 1981 at the age of 24 and served as a state representative for four years and as a state senator for eight years. During that time, he was twice elected majority whip and chaired numerous committees, including the Education Appropriations, Communications and Information Policy, Human Services Appropriations, and Judiciary committees. He was the first Iowa legislator to install and use a computer in the Iowa legislative chambers. He left the legislature in 1994 to teach and serve as director of Telecommunications and IT Production Services at the University of Northern Iowa. There he led a successful reorganization of the technology departments and created numerous innovative e-learning programs. He returned to state government in 1999 to create the state’s first Information Technology Department. He served as its first director and as the state’s first CIO. Iowa’s IT Department quickly gained a reputation for innovative and efficient use of information technology to deliver solutions to government and its citizens. Varn returned to full-time consulting in 2002.

His degrees and academic honors include membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science, and a Juris Doctorate with distinction from the University of Iowa.

Varn has received numerous awards and recognitions for his public service, including being named twice to the Federal 100 and winning the National Association of State Chief Information Officers Outstanding Achievement Award. He is an internationally recognized expert and leader in information technology, privacy, identity security, public policy and digital government.

Vincent Varrassi
Campus Director
Regional Center for College Students with
Learning Disabilities
Fairleigh Dickinson University

Vincent Varrassi holds an M.A. in learning disabilities and an M.A.T. in social studies education, and has served as the campus director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Regional Center for College Students with Learning Disabilities since July 1999. He is currently the campus director at the University’s Teaneck “Metropolitan Campus.”

He has 27 years of experience in public school education, having served as both a special and regular education classroom teacher, a learning disabilities specialist, and supervisor of special education. A former member of the executive board of the North Jersey Special Education Administrators Association and the executive board of the New Jersey Association of College Admissions Counselors, he is also an adjunct faculty member to the School of Education at FDU.

Varrassi has presented on the topic of transition to college and alternative postsecondary options for students with learning disabilities at high schools, college fairs and professional conferences throughout New Jersey and nationally.

He has addressed parents, students and educators at the New Jersey International Dyslexia Association Conference, The New Jersey Transition Coalition, the Morris County College Fair, the New Jersey Association of College Admissions Counseling, the National Association of College Admissions Counseling, the New Jersey Association of Learning Consultants and many high school districts.

James Wendorf
Executive Director
National Center for Learning Disabilities

James Wendorf is executive director of the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), which seeks to ensure that the nation’s 15 million individuals affected by learning disabilities have every opportunity to succeed in school, work and life. He directs NCLD’s efforts to provide essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities; to promote research and programs that foster effective learning; and to advocate for policies that protect and strengthen educational
rights and opportunities.

Prior to joining NCLD in 1999, Wendorf served as vice president and chief operating officer of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., the nation’s largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization, based in Washington, D.C. He holds a B.A. from Yale College, and graduate degrees in English language and literature from the University of Cambridge and Cornell University. Wendorf serves on the National Institutes of Health Director’s Council of Public Representatives, the advisory board of the National Center on Educational Outcomes and several other
nonprofit boards.

Agenda

Download entire agenda (PDF).

When available, links are provided to conference presentations in PowerPoint format.

Contact

For more information contact Amy Lallier, Symposium Coordinator,
(609) 734-5058, alallier@ets.org.