Joe Caldwell, Ph.D.

Joe finished his doctoral degree in UIC Disability Studies program in 2005. He is currently a Policy Analyst with the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) and Adjunct Assistant Research Professor with the Department of Disability and Human Development. Joe's research has primarily focused on consumer-directed supports, aging caregivers, and family support policy. His work has been published in the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Disability & Society, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, and Disability Studies Quarterly. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Page-El Scholarship Award (2003), AUCD Anne Rudigier Award (2003), UIC University Fellowship (2004), IASSID Stevens Shapiro Award (2004), and AAIDD Student Award (2006).

While working on his doctoral degree, Joe spent a year in Washington, DC in a Disability Policy Fellowship with AUCD. After the fellowship, he returned to UIC and taught several courses in the Master's and Doctoral programs, including a course on Disability Policy. He returned to AUCD in 2007 and now covers education, health, and long-term services and supports policy. AUCD works in coalition with the Consortium of Citizens for Disabilities (CCD), a coalition of over 100 national disability organizations. Joe is a current Co-Chair of the CCD Long-Term Services and Supports Task Force. The task force has been instrumental in working to protect Medicaid, expand home and community-based services, and advance family support policy. Joe has helped provide input into the development of legislation such as the Community Living Services and Supports (CLASS) Act -which would establish a new social insurance program to finance long-term services and supports. This past year, Joe also was deeply involved with the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to reduce barriers to higher education for individuals with disabilities and create opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities to attend college.

Joe recently received a NIDRR Switzer Merit Fellowship and is conducting research on leadership and the self-advocacy movement. He is exploring the life histories of leaders in the movement across the country. On one level, the project aims to preserve history. He is working with the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley to expand their collection of life histories of leaders in the disability rights movement. On other levels, the project is exploring disability identity, the process of leadership development, the meaning of leadership, and the future of the self-advocacy movement and next generation of leaders.