To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the National Disability Mentoring Coalition has named 25 outstanding leaders as the first inductees into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame. These inductees were selected for their demonstrated commitment to mentoring and for the impact of their contributions on improving the lives of people with disabilities.
We are proud to induct Katherine Seelman, Ph.D., associate dean of disability programs and professor of rehabilitation science and technology at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame’s 2015 inaugural class.
Dr. Seelman holds secondary appointments in the School of Public Health and the Center for Bioethics, an adjunct position at Xian Jiatong University, China and served as senior policy adviser for the National Science Foundation-supported Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center.
Dr. Seelman, who is hard-of-hearing, serves as adviser to the University’s Students for Disability Advocacy, is co-chair of the City of Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Task Force on Disability, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Area Agency on Aging.
President Barack Obama appointed her to the National Council on Disability in 2014. She was one of two from the U.S. serving on the World Health Organization’s 9-member international editorial committee to guide the development of the first World Report on Disability and presented a chapter of the Report, for which she was a principal author, in 2011 at the United Nations.
During the Clinton Administration, she served for seven years as the Director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in Washington, D.C. She was the recipient of the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award in 2007. She is widely published and the recipient of many awards.
