Similar to Women's Studies or African American studies, this field considers disability as a social minority group with an emphasis on the way in which disability is constructed culturally, politically and economically rather than the traditional emphasis on the physiology of impairment.
The Interdisciplinary Leadership in Disability Studies Certificate (ILDS) is for students who have earned a bachelor's degree and wish to obtain advanced training in the emerging field of disability studies.
Students who earn the certificate will be positioned to provide leadership in their chosen occupations. Students in many diverse fields are well suited for this certificate including sociology, psychology, nursing, pharmacy, law, social work, public administration, urban planning and design and education.
The ILDS Certificate may accompany a Master's Degree, a PhD Program, or can be earned as a standalone certificate.
George S. Gotto IV is the director of UMKC's Institute for Human Development. He works throughout the state of Missouri to conduct community-based research and training projects primarily related to health and wellness for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Gotto joined UMKC-IHD, MIssouri's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), in 2009 and was named director in 2018. He holds a joint appointment of Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the UMKC School of Medicine. He currently teaches courses on Life Span Issues in Developmental Disabilities and Disability and Community Support at UMKC.
Gotto received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Kansas in medical anthropology with an emphasis in community-based research and cross-cultural perspectives on health and disability. He spent his early career at Northern Arizona University's University Center of Excellence for Developmental Disabilities and the Univeristy of Kansas Beach Center on Disability.
Gotto has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 25 federal, state, and foundation grants and contracts primarily focusing on health and disability in the United States and Mexico. He has extensive experience with the development and management of communities of practice and has co-written and published a step-by-step guide to CoP development (Gotto, et al., 2008) along with a multitude of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, reports, and curricula in areas related to self-determination, community-based research, and health and wellness for people with disabilities.
He is a founding member of the Missouri Self-Determination Association (MO-SDA), a past president and remains on the board of the Missouri Chapter of the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (MOAAIDD), and has been recognized for his leadership and excellence in applied research by the Board of Directors of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), which elected him to the status of Fellow.
Houston-Reed graduated from Missouri State University in July 2020 with a bachelor’s in Hospitality Leadership with an emphasis in Tourism, an undergraduate certificate in Food and Beverage Management, and a minor in German. She moved to the Kansas City area in May 2020 to “Roo Up.”
Helene completed a graduate certificate in Interdisciplinary Leadership in Disability Studies in May 2021, which is one of the programs she now leads.
Her projects include:
Houston-Reed is also involved with UMKC’s Staff Council as a voting member and contributes to the UMKC’s Disability Alliance Affinity Group. She became a certified ADA Coordinator in December 2022.
As an individual with disabilities, she recently retired her service dog of 5+ years, Bella. Houston-Reed has first-hand experience with establishing academic accommodations for students within higher education. Her people-first mentality comes through in all her projects but most especially her outreach efforts for IHD.
Lester found her passion for elder law when she experienced the long-term care journey with her grandparents. She has focused her entire legal career on advocating for older adults and individuals with disabilities since graduating from UMKC School of Law in 2014. She spent seven years in private practice, and most recently, another few years as a Special Needs Trust administrator. She brings these experiences to providing elder law, Medicaid planning and special needs planning services to Complete Estate & Probate.
Lester co-teaches the LAW 8815S Disability Law course.
Michelle Reynolds, Ph.D., is the key developer of the Charting the LifeCourse framework and tools and director of IHD’s LifeCourse Nexus Training and Technical Assistance Center.