The Institute was organized in 2005 exclusively for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes to enhance the well-being of people with disabilities, their parents, and the professionals who are devoted to their interests.
As a nonprofit publisher, the Institute collaborates with professional associations to publish society journals and monographs. The associations for which the Institute publishes scholarly, peer-review journals include the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, the Association for Positive Behavioral Support, the Council for Learning Disabilities, the Wisconsin Council of Administrators of Special Services, and five divisions of the Council for Exceptional Children (Council for Educational Diagnostic Services, Division for Career Development and Transition, Division for Communication Disorders and Deafness, Division for Developmental Disabilities, and the Division for Research).
In addition to publishing professional journals, mostly in low-incidence disability areas, the Institute publishes (a) books and instructional materials that focus on the education, rehabilitation, and transition of people who have special needs and (b) assessments that are used to identify individuals with disabilities and determine the severity of their problems, inventory their specific intervention needs, and monitor their progress.
The Institute also supports and conducts scientific research. Among its initial activities will be a concerted effort to identify those individuals who made significant contributions to the field of disability between the years 1800 and 1960 and to document in depth the nature and importance of their accomplishments in terms of today's efforts to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
Donald D. Hammill received a doctorate in educational psychology-special education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963. He had previously served as a teacher in the Corpus Christi (Texas) public schools and as a speech and language therapist in the Deer Park (Texas) public schools. He earned a certificate of clinical competence from the American Speech and Hearing Association in 1963. From 1963 to 1965, he held an assistant research professorship at the Institute of Logopedics at Wichita State University in Kansas, where he studied the language problems of children with brain damage. In 1965 he went to Temple University in Philadelphia, rising quickly to the rank of full professor of special education. He resigned from Temple in 1972 in order to return home to Texas. In 1977, Donald established PRO-ED, an international publishing company, and he serves as its president. Today PRO-ED is one of the major international publishers in the areas of special and remedial education, rehabilitation, psychology, assessment, and speech and hearing disorders. The extensive product line includes tests, teaching and therapeutic materials, books and reference materials, and thirteen journals.
Mr. Lum is currently Vice President, Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel of PRO-ED, Inc. an educational publishing company. Prior to joining PRO-ED in this position, he practiced law in the corporate reorganizations and bankruptcy section of the Houston law firm of Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay, P.C. In addition, he was previously an officer in the Corporate Banking department of The Chase Manhattan Bank, working at various times in New York, Boston and Houston. Mr. Lum holds B.A. in Economics from Boston College and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Prior to attending law school, he also worked for PRO-ED as a research assistant in the company's Test Development department.
Herbert J. Rieth began his professional career as a school psychologist in Kansas. He was awarded a doctoral fellowship in Learning Disabilities at the University of Kansas and completed the program in 1971. During the following years he held professorship ranks at the University of Vermont and Indiana University. He was Director of the Center for Innovation in Teaching the Handicapped as well as Chairperson of the Department of Special Education at Indiana University. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was a Research Scientist in the Learning Technology Center and Chairperson of the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. He is currently Chairperson of the Department of Special Education and the Audrey Rogers Myers Centennial Professor in Education at the University of Texas at Austin. He has authored or co-authored approximately 100 books, book chapters, or articles in his field of expertise. He has also received over $19 million to conduct training and research in special education; concentrating much of his efforts in the use of technology with special education. At present, he is also a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Doctoral Training in Special Education—appointed by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education.
Katherine Synatschk is currently the Executive Editor of the Books & Materials Division at PRO-ED, Inc. Throughout her career from 1974–2001 in the fields of Special Education and Counseling, Dr. Synatschk has served as a Special Education teacher at Reagan High School (Austin ISD), a School Social Worker (for a number of schools in Austin ISD), a School Counselor at Johnston and Bowie High Schools (AISD), and the Director of Counseling for the Austin Independent School District. From 1994 to 2000 she was an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and from 1999 through the present she has been an adjunct associate professor of counseling at Texas State University. She has been a Supervisor of Licensed Professional Counselor Interns. She has been involved in many community commissions and boards whose focus was social welfare intervention for young people in Austin and Central Texas. Additionally, she has trained counselors in the U. S. and internationally and consults with school districts regarding comprehensive counseling programs. Dr. Synatschk has authored numerous chapters, articles, and materials for use in counseling programs. She has held leadership positions in the Capital of Texas Counseling Association and the Texas Counseling Association. She was the 1997 recipient of the Texas School Counseling Association Administrator of the Year award. Her degrees include B. S., M.Ed. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and numerous postgraduate hours of study from UT–Austin and Texas State University
Sharon Vaughn is the H.E. Martfelder Southland Corp Regents Chair and Director of the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and language Arts at the University of Texas. She is a professor within the Department of Special Education at the University of Texas. She is the previous Editor in Chief of Journal of Learning Disabilities and serves on ten editorial review boards for journals which focus upon individuals with disabilities. She is the author of more than 6 books and 100 peer-reviewed articles in the field of education. Dr. Vaughn has received over $35 million in research grants from such organizations as the United States Department of Education, the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Texas Education Agency in the field of education.
Judith K. Voress started teaching at a county school for children with moderate mental retardation while working on her undergraduate degree at Bowling Green State University. Following graduation, she taught a middle school special education class and general education elementary classes. She went on to get her master's degree from Ball State University, joining the university's faculty for 3 years. In 1983, Judy received her doctorate in learning disabilities from the University of New Mexico. She taught at The University of Texas at Arlington, then left to accept a position as program coordinator for 9 counties in Texas for an early childhood intervention program. Judy joined PRO-ED in 1986 as associate editor of the Journal of Learning Disabilities, serving in that position for 10 years. During this time, she also held an adjunct position in the Department of Special Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Judy was Periodicals Director at PRO-ED until 2005. She is an author of several tests and materials.