Jennifer Sulewski, Ph.D., FAAIDD

Expertise: Community Life Engagement, Research, Program Evaluation, Analysis and use of employment services outcomes data, Employment policy and practices for people with disabilities, Organizational change and state systems change, Research methods, Transition from school to adult life, Inclusive Higher Education

Jennifer is a national expert on community life engagement (CLE) for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She has authored numerous publications and conference presentations on CLE and has provided consultation to state agencies and service providers across the country on how to improve CLE supports. From 2014-2017 she was Principal Investigator of the Field Initiated CLE Project, a federally-funded effort to study how to improve supports for CLE, and she is lead author of the Community Life Engagement Toolkit for state agencies and service providers. She has also led several other projects on CLE over the past 15 years, including case studies of CLE supports in two states, survey research with state IDD agencies and local service providers, and the CLE Working Group of the State Employment Leadership Network.

She has extensive research and program evaluation experience in competitive integrated employment supports for people with disabilities, state systems change, service provider transformation and quality improvement, evaluation of training and technical assistance activities, supports to families across the life span, transition to adulthood, and inclusive postsecondary education.

Jennifer is a Fellow of the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and past co-chair of the Disabilities and Other Vulnerable Populations Topical Interest Group of the American Evaluation Association. She received her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University in 2006, with a dissertation titled In Search of Meaningful Daytimes: Community-Based Nonwork Supports for Adults with Developmental Disabilities.

Email Jennifer Sulewski.