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Director, Center for Disability Employment Research
Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Rutgers New Jersey, School of Medicine
John O'Neill, PhD. Dr. O’Neill is currently Director of Employment and Disability Research at the Kessler Foundation and Project Co-Director of several funded research efforts: 1) Craig H. Neilsen Foundation Resource Facilitation: Early Inpatient and Assertive Outpatient VR Services for Individuals with SCI and; 2) Children’s Specialized Hospital Return-to-School Outcomes: Matching State Longitudinal K-12 Educational Data to Hospital Records and: 3) Department of Defense, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, Spinal Cord Injury Research Program, Qualitative Research Award studying striving to work among Veterans with SCI. Dr. O’Neill also directed three NIDILRR funded RRTCs: 1) Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Individual Characteristics and Employment; 2) Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics; 3) Employment Service System Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. He was a principal for 10 years within the NIDILRR funded RRTC on the Community Integration of People with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) where he led a research project to expand and evaluate an innovative approach for providing vocational rehabilitation services to people with TBI. He also worked for over eight years on NIDILRR funded research to improve the quality of vocational rehabilitation services available to persons living with AIDS. For six years Dr. O’Neill sat on the New York State Rehabilitation Council and was that Committee’s representative working with the New York State vocational rehabilitation agency to create a comprehensive system of personnel development. As part of his Council involvement, he chaired the Quality Assurance and Improvement Committee where he oversaw the New York State vocational rehabilitation agency needs assessment. Dr. O’Neill also directed the graduate program in rehabilitation counseling at Hunter College, CUNY for 25 years.