VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
Center for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering
Researcher Information
Paul Wehman, Ph.D.
Professor of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Chairman of Rehabilitation Research with a joint appointment in the Departments of Special Education and Disability Policy and Rehabilitation Counseling,
Rehabilitation Research and Training Center,
Virginia Commonwealth University
(804) 828-1851
pwehman@mcvh-vcu.edu
Biography:
Dr. Wehman is a Professor of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Chairman of Rehabilitation Research with a joint appointment in the Departments of Special Education and Disability Policy and Rehabilitation Counseling. He pioneered the development of supported employment at VCU in the early 1980s and has been heavily involved in the use of supported employment with people who have severe disabilities, such as those with severe mental retardation, brain injury, spinal cord injury or autism. Dr. Wehman also is Director of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center and the Director of the new VCU Center for Excellence. He has written extensively on issues related to transition from school to adulthood and special education as it relates for young adulthood. He has published more than 200 articles,105 book chapters, and authored or edited 43 books. He is a recipient of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.-Foundation International Awards in Mental Retardation, was a Mary Switzer Fellow for the National Rehabilitation Association in 1985, and has received the Distinguished Service Award from the President's Committee on Employment for Persons with Disabilities in October 1992. Wehman was recognized as one of the 50 most influential special educators of the millenium by a national survey coordinated by the Remedial and Special Education journal (December 2000), and received the VCU Distinguished Service Award in 2001. He also is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation. He has been the principal investigator of more than $42 million worth of federal grants since being at VCU.
Research focus:
Vocational and Return to School research for individuals with disability; and
Autism Spectrum Disorders