Laurie Ford, MS, continuing education specialist, clinical instructor and acting director of the Center for Continuing Education in Rehabilitation (CCER), Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, will retire on Dec. 2, 2020. Laurie has been with UW for a total of 23 years (1978-1989 and 2008-2020) and has worked at the CCER for 31 years.
In 1989, Ford was offered a position at CCER (then at Seattle University) to start a grant-funded training program that supported employment for people with mental health conditions. Over the past 31 years, she has trained hundreds of Northwest job coaches and job developers; managed regional grants providing continuing education to vocational rehabilitation (VR) and community rehabilitation program staff; participated in the Washington State Independent Living Council and many regional and national advisory committees; and offered technical assistance to VR agencies across the country in the areas of business engagement, employer support and supported employment.
Ford will be succeeded as acting director by Elizabeth Boland, PhD, CRC, professor and academic program director of the master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling program at Western Washington University.
