Peter Ochieng spent his Fellowship at Georgia State University Center for Leadership in Disability in Atlanta, Georgia.

Located in the diverse southern city of Atlanta, the Center for Leadership in Disability will offer Peter several opportunities to study and understand their work. The Center’s area of concentration includes career counseling within higher education, building career pathways to work. and rehabilitation engineering research. The Center manages the state of Georgia’s transition and postsecondary programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). These enable youth with IDD to attend and excel in higher education alongside their peers and are considered nationwide models for excellence.

The center’s initiatives that support higher education and transition to employment include an inclusive postsecondary education program called Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy (IDEAL) and internships for young people with intellectual disabilities at their center. Having received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the center is instituting a project to improve employment for all youth with disabilities through inclusive higher education. In addition, their partnership with Georgia Tech, UNoiversity of Texas Arlington, and the Shepherd Center, the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) forWireless Inclusive Technologies (WITRERC) was created to identify best practices for how wireless technology can facilitate the integration of PWD.

Susanna Miller- Raines is the Operations Coordinator at the Center for Leadership in Disability. She plays a critical leadership role in the Center’s initiative that supports higher education and transition to employment. She and Peter have similar investment and concentration in the area of career pathways to work.