The Engaging Disability 2007 team, sponsored by University of Victoria's Studies in Policy and Practice, is comprised of:

Rachel Gold - Project Coordinator
Tamara Herman - Publicity/Communications Coordinator
Pamela Moss - Project Organizer
Michael Prince - Project Advisor
Kathy Teghtsoonian - Project Advisor

Sponsor
Studies in Policy and Practice (SPP) is an interdisciplinary graduate program in the Faculty of Human and Social Development at the University of Victoria. Its primary objective is to foster an understanding of the social, cultural, and political context of policy and practice. SPP brings together critical interpretations of policy, critical analyses of experience and practice, and critical theories of society and polity in innovative ways - all to effect social change. Engaging Disability 2007 is an initiative from Studies in Policy and Practice (SPP) intended to bring together people interested in thinking about disability and illness in critical ways.

Project Coordinator
Rachel Gold is an M.A. Candidate in Studies in Policy and Practice at the University of Victoria. Rachel has served as an advocate and counselor for children, youth, families and seniors, and has held a variety of roles supporting children in the education system. Her research interests focus on the disciplinary nature of the social relations of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder diagnoses. Rachel is available to answer your questions about Engaging Disability 2007 at any time - feel free to be in touch.

Publicity/Communications Coordinator
Tamara Herman is an M.A. Candidate in Studies in Policy and Practice at the University of Victoria. She has worked as a community organizer on social justice issues for over ten years in Canada, West Africa and Latin America. Her current research interests include community resistances to economic policies, feminist practices, migration and community media.

Project Organizer
Pamela Moss, trained as a geographer, teaches from socialist, poststructuralist, and feminist perspectives. Her interests in power and illness has led her to explore themes of body, self, and identity in numerous contexts - women, bodies, myalgic encephalopathy (ME), post-traumatic stress disorder among combat veterans and autobiography. She will be participating in multiple activities and will be co-teaching the courses offered through the Institute.

Project Advisor
Michael Prince teaches policy and organizational analysis in public administration and Studies in Policy and Practice. His current research interests include: trends in social policy over the past 25 years and the next generations; federal-provincial relations; aboriginal governance; and policy making in the community. He will be giving one of the Monday night lectures and co-teaching the courses offered through the Institute.

Project Advisor
Kathy Teghtsoonian is trained as a political scientist, and teaches courses on the connections between policy and practice in the human services, critical perspectives on mental illness/health, and women in/and the human services. Her scholarly agenda flows from an engagement with feminist and other critical literatures and addresses the multiple ways in which neoliberal ideological framings and advanced liberal technologies of rule have shaped public and organizational policies, within Canada and in other industrialized democracies. Currently, she is developing a research agenda designed to analyze critically initiatives aimed at addressing "mental illness in the workplace." She will be co-teaching the courses offered through the Institute.