Rebecca Salon is Senior Advisor for the National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD Center). She was Project Director of the LEAD Center for more than six years, starting in 2013 and previously was Principal Investigator on NDI’s NIDILRR-funded Financial Engagement as a Gateway to Community Participation research grant.

Dr. Salon is a recognized national leader in policy and program development with an emphasis on cutting-edge demonstrations that promote employment and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with significant disabilities. She has more than 35 years of experience with management of federally funded projects and has more than 40 years of experience working with people across the spectrum of disabilities. Dr. Salon also works with the State Office of Policy, Planning and Innovation at the District of Columbia Department on Disability Services (DDS), where she works on DC’s Employment First, Technology First, and other program initiatives, in collaboration with DDS’s developmental disabilities and vocational rehabilitation administrations. Almost all of her energies focus on creating opportunities for employment, community inclusion, self-determination and economic self-sufficiency for youth and adults.

Dr. Salon previously was Executive Director of the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute, where she worked for 20 years in positions that spanned all of its programs and projects. Since 1988, she has been an advisor to Project ACTION!, a Washington, D.C.-based statewide self-advocacy coalition run by adults with developmental disabilities and has worked with a number of family advocacy coalitions in DC and Maryland.

Dr. Salon received her Master’s and Doctorate from Syracuse University, focusing on special education and disability policy studies. She also previously worked at its Center on Human Policy and in a number of nonprofit management positions.