Dr. Jan Writer joined the School of Education in 2008. She serves as the Director of Student Placement and teaches courses in the area of special education. She was previously an Associate Professor of Education at Elmhurst College and on the Education faculty at the University of San Diego and the University of Arizona, where she coordinated graduate teacher education programs in the areas of severe disabilities, orthopedic impairments, and multiple sensory impairments She holds a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in severe/multiple disabilities, a master’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from Southern Methodist University, and a bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing therapy from Indiana University.

Dr. Writer has been working in the field of special education for more than 40 years. Prior to joining BenU, she was employed as a speech pathologist, a classroom teacher, the coordinator of programs for students with moderate and severe disabilities for a 16-district special education cooperative, a state education agency staff development specialist, a multi-state Deaf=Blind Regional Center education coordinator, an independent evaluator of students with disabilities, an onsite technical assistance provider, a teacher educator, and a parent advocate. Over the past 38 years, she has consulted to programs serving persons with severe disabilities in over 34 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the U.S. Pacific Trust Territories, and American Samoa.

Dr. Writer is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Council for Exceptional Children, International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Autism national Committee, Autism Society of America, National Coalition on Deafblindness, TASH (formerly The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps), Autism Society of Illinois, and Arc of Illinois. A specialist in public school inclusion and the education of children and youth with low incidence of disabilities (autism, orthopedic impairments, intellectual disabilities, multiple disabilities, sensory impairments, and deafblindness), she serves on leadership committees for multiple national and international organizations in the field of special education. She has further presented at more than 300 regional, state, national, and international conferences on topics specific to the quality education of students with moderate, severe, and low incidence disabilities.