Inclusivity Reimagined: Strength-Based Strategies & Disability Acceptance

Daniel Van Sant is a disability rights attorney who has practiced most extensively in the areas of inclusive education, gender-based violence, and inclusive international development. He draws on his personal and professional experience with disability in leading the disability policy work at The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement at Drake University.

All of the disability work at The Harkin Institute is tied, somehow, to increasing access to competitive, integrated employment for all people with disabilities. From conducting focus groups in Iowa related to Medicaid services, to presenting at universities, providing consultation to corporations, and organizing the international Harkin Summit on Disability Employment, Daniel works on disability inclusion in many spheres and across many locations.

Daniel received bachelor’s degrees in International Relations, Rhetoric, and Politics from Drake University. He earned his Juris Doctorate and a Master of Science in Cultural Foundations of Education with a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Disability Studies from Syracuse University.

Kristie Patten, PhD, OT/L, FAOTA, is Counselor to the President and she oversees the priorities of the Office of the President and is a key liaison to the Office of the Provost and major administrative units to coordinate planning, implementation, and assessment around these joint efforts. Dr. Patten has been at NYU since 2007 and is also a Professor of Occupational Therapy at NYU Steinhardt. She has served as Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at NYU Steinhardt and Chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy. As a professor, her research examines strength based practices in inclusive public school settings. Dr. Patten is the Principal Investigator of the NYU Steinhardt's ASD Nest Program, supporting New York City Public Schools’ largest inclusion program for autistic students and is on the NYCPS Special Education Advisory Council. She co-chairs the Global Center for Inclusion’s Research Collaborative and co-founded, along with colleagues from the Moses Center, the NYU Connections program for neurodivergent students at NYU. She is currently Co-PI of an NSF grant that engages autistic college students mentoring autistic high school students in STEM interests and career pathways.

These projects leverage strengths and interests of 5th through 12th grade students on the spectrum to develop social competence and potential career pathways. Dr. Patten has published and presented nationally and internationally on topics related to examining the efficacy of public school inclusion models and viewing autism from a strength-based or abilities-based model. She was  awarded the 2022 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship, by the American Occupational Therapy Association, the highest academic award in the profession for her work entitled "Finding our Strengths: Recognizing our Professional Bias and Interrogating Systems".