Public Health Perspectives on Disability

In this new edition, the editors and contributors update and expand on the educational framework that was introduced in the first edition for rethinking disability in public health study and practice and for attaining the competencies that should accompany this knowledge.

The second edition highlights key areas of research that have emerged since the first edition was published. This edition includes new and updated chapters that have particular relevance for public health practice:

• Disability, Intersectionality, and Inequity: Life in the Margins
• Disability and Health Programs: Emerging Partners
• Children with Special Healthcare Needs
• Disasters and Disability: Rhetoric and Reality
• Inter-relationship of Health Insurance and Employment for People with Disabilities
• Public Health, Work, and Disability
• Actions to Prepare a Competent Workforce

Public Health Perspectives on Disability: Science, Social Justice, Ethics, and Beyond, 2nd Edition, is an essential resource for public health educators and practitioners as well as students in graduate schools of public health throughout the United States.

Donald J. Lollar, EdD, is Professor Emeritus of Public Health at the School of Public Health of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA. Dr. Lollar was the Associate Director for Research and Academic Affairs in the OHSU Institute on Development and Disability and directed the OHSU University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.  Prior to his OHSU tenure, he was a Senior Health Scientist in the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. During his 15-year association with CDC, Dr. Lollar directed the Office on Disability and Health at NCEH and NCBDDD Office of Extramural Research. He has written extensively in the area of public health and disability, emphasizing the need for disability to be an integral part of public health education and training, culminating in the inclusion of people with disabilities in public health science, policy, and programs. He has published in Public Health Reports, the Annual Review of Public Health, the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, and Rehabilitation Psychology. He was a practicing psychologist for 25 years before coming to CDC.  Dr. Lollar received his MS and EdD degrees in Rehabilitation Counseling from Indiana University.

Willi Horner-Johnson, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the collaborative Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Portland State University School of Public Health and in OHSU’s Institute on Development and Disability in Portland, Oregon, USA. Dr. Horner-Johnson received her graduate training in community psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she studied attitudes toward community inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities and co-authored a curriculum on recognizing and addressing abuse and maltreatment of people with disabilities. Since joining OHSU in 2001, her research has focused on disparities in health and access to health care as they impact youth and adults with disabilities. She has particular interests in reproductive health of women with disabilities, intersectionality of disability with other marginalized identities, and measurement of health-related quality of life in the context of disability. She directs the Oregon Office on Disability and Health, a CDC-funded project to monitor and promote the health of individuals with disabilities in Oregon. She is active in disability-related professional organizations nationally and internationally, and is a Past-Chair of the Disability Section of the American Public Health Association.

Katherine Froehlich-Grobe, PhD, is Acting Director of Research at Baylor Scott and White Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas, Texas, USA, where she has been since 2016, having spent 16 years in academia at the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of Kansas, and the University of Texas School of Public Health, where she maintains an adjunct faculty appointment and continues teaching a course on Disability and Public Health. Dr. Froehlich-Grobe received her graduate training in behavioral psychology and has spent her professional career conducting research to enhance access to and engagement in health behaviors for community-dwelling individuals who live with disabilities. Her research program has focused on developing and testing evidence- and theory-based strategies to promote behavior change around dietary intake and physical activity for individuals with physical disabilities with support from the NIH, CDC, NIDILRR, and private foundations. Dr. Froehlich-Grobe's research has explored social determinants of health, specifically perceived and environmental barriers to exercise that people with disabilities face. She has conducted several intervention studies that target reducing exercise barriers that wheelchair users encounter including lack of available and affordable transportation and accessible equipment combined with teaching behavioral self-management strategies to initiate an exercise program.