Dorothy ("Dot") E. Nary, Ph.D.

Dot Nary received her doctoral degree from the Department of Applied Behavioral Science (ABS) at the University of Kansas and is currently a research associate at the Research and Training Center on Independent Living. She received a Switzer Fellowship in 2011.

She has 10 years of experience working in Centers for Independent Living (CILs) in upstate New York. There she conducted community training on the Americans with Disabilities Act and developed a program to provide independent living services on site to public housing residents. She co-founded the Health Care Reform Subcommittee of the Association of Independent Living Centers in New York (AILCNY) and was awarded the David Veatch Advocacy Achievement Award from AILCNY in 1994. While living in NY, Ms. Nary also conducted outreach for a study of adults with cerebral palsy and aging through the SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse.

Ms. Nary earned an M.A. in HDFL at KU 2000, and worked as Training Director at the Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL) at KU. Her research interests focus on health and independent living issues of people with disabilities, including health promotion, health care reform, access to health care services, personal assistance services, and advocacy training. She has been involved in several research projects at the RTC/IL in the areas of increased physical activity for persons with physical disabilities and self-advocacy skills training.

In 1997 she participated in the Emerging Scholars Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and the Dole Foundation. She recently completed a term as board president at Independence, Inc, the CIL in Lawrence, KS, and was awarded the Roger Williams Community Access Award from the CIL. She currently serves on the Consumer Advisory Board of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Recreational Technologies and Exercise Physiology Benefiting Persons with Disabilities (RecTech) and on the Equal Health Opportunity Committee (EHOC) of the American Public Health Association.