Our Team

The Propel Project is a collaboration among researchers located at two universities leading research related to developmental disabilities in the United States, as well as guidance from consultants with expertise in interventions in autism, secondary education, adolescence, and implementation.

University of Kansas Team

Karrie A. Shogren, Ph.D. -- Principal Investigator

Karrie (shogren@ku.edu) is Director of the Kansas University Center on Disabilities (a University Center for Excellence in Disabilities), Senior Scientist at the Schiefelbusch Life Span Institute, and Professor in the Department of Special Education all at the University of Kansas. Dr. Shogren is the lead author of the Self-Determination Inventory (www.self-determination.org), a recently validated assessment of self-determination and the Supported Decision-Making Inventory System, the first assessment of the supports needed to involve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in decisions about their lives

Natalie Nordby Chen, M.Ed. -- Project Manager

Natalie (nnchen@ku.edu) serves as Research Project Manager at the Kansas University Center on Disabilities, steering activities that strengthen and support each project. An experienced assessment professional with a focus on accessibility, she spent more than twenty years as a language test designer and developer, and taught ESL/EFL in university and intensive language programs in the United States and Taiwan.

Tyler Hicks, Ph.D. -- Associate Research Professor/Lead Statistician

Tyler (tahicks@ku.edu) is an Associate Research Professor and Director of Research Methodology at the Kansas University Center on Disabilities. He has served as a methodologist on multiple funded projects and his current research interests focus on statistical solutions to overcoming challenges to modeling data from efficacy trials in special education research, including evaluating applications of Bayesian decision theory.

Lindsay Rentschler, Ph.D. -- Assistant Research Professor

Lindsay (lfr@ku.edu)is an Assistant Research Professor at the Kansas University Center on Disabilities. Dr. Rentschler's work focuses on the translation of evidence-based practices for autistic youth transitioning to adulthood. On the Propel Project, Dr. Rentschler has supported teachers implementing the SDLMI and Peer Supports in her role as a coach. Recently, she has been supporting the methodologists in data analyses efforts and dissemination of findings in articles, conference presentations, and accessible infographics and reports.

Hannah Cox, M.S. CCC-SLP, -- Education Program Manager

Hannah (hannah.cox@ku.edu) is an Education Program Manager at the Kansas University Center on Disabilities. She is a licensed speech-language pathologist with multiple years of experience with transition aged youth. She currently works on projects that target self-determination, teacher versus technology led intervention, drop out prevention, mentorship, and the integration of evidence based interventions. She supports data collection for Propel.

Taylor Givens, M.S.W. -- Assistant Researcher

Taylor (tgivens2@ku.edu) is an Assistant Researcher at the Kansas University Center on Disabilities. She studied at the University of Kansas for her bachelor's and master's degrees. She has worked with children and teenagers with Autism and other developmental disabilities. She previously taught in the Pre-K setting. She supports data collection, processing, and management activities for Propel.

Johnny Chien, Ph.D. -- Postdoctoral Researcher

Johnny (hychien@ku.edu) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Kansas University Center on Disabilities. He has contributed as a methodologist to several funded projects. His current research interests include the application of exploratory statistical methods in special education research, with a focus on machine learning techniques.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Team

Kara Hume, Ph.D. -- UNC Site Principal Investigator

Kara (kara.hume@unc.edu) is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Director of National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice, and a Faculty Fellow at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Her research focuses on increasing access for individuals with developmental disabilities to high quality community-based and school-based interventions.

Barbara Bossen, M. Ed. - Project Coordinator & Intervention Coach

Barbara (bbossen@unc.edu) is the Project Coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the UNC team, Barbara worked in schools and school districts as a teacher and autism program specialist for almost 3 decades.

Consultants

Erik Carter, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Erik is a Professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. His research and teaching focuses on peer supports and strategies for promoting full participation, belonging, and valued roles in school, work, community, and congregational settings for children and adults with intellectual disability, autism, and multiple disabilities.

Nancy Scammacca Lewis, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

Nancy has worked on projects involving quantitative and qualitative research design and data analysis, meta-analysis, program evaluation, survey construction, and survey data analysis. Her expertise includes advanced statistical techniques such as hierarchical linear modeling, structural equation modeling, and regression-discontinuity analysis.

Past team members

Hannah Abernathy

Abdulaziz Alsaeed

Jennifer Bumble

Daniel Greenberg

Jessie Kiblen

Amy McCaskey

Sheida Raley

Claire Stelter

Emily Tucker

Nadin Abu Khalaf

Noorhan Abu Khalaf

Katie Brady

Amanda Buchanan

Emily Cort

Patience Dean

Brian Dunlop

Daniel Earixson

Brittany Hayward

Hector Hernandez

Delia Kan

Taylor Kennedy

Nadya Logan

Kayla Malone

Nicole Mora

Kinda Musa

Yolanda Perkins

Gavin Thompson

Clara Joy Thorn

Noemi Vazquez Herrera

Braden Wilkinson

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