In June, Lucille Zeph, Director of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies at the University of Maine, and Co-Director of the NH LEND Program, retired after after 35 years of service to the University of Maine.
Lucille Zeph joined the faculty of the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development in 1979 where she established and coordinated graduate education in the area of severe disabilities until 1992. She received her BS in Education from Boston State College, her Masters in deaf/blind and multiple disabilities from Boston College and her doctorate in educational leadership from Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. For the past 23 years, Lu has served as the founding Director of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Maine’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), an interdisciplinary research unit of the University of Maine. She’s served as NH LEND Co-Principal Investigator, Program Co-Director, and Disability Studies faculty since 2011.
Lu is an internationally recognized expert in the field of developmental disabilities. She has served as Principal Investigator on numerous federal and state grants and contracts, published in the areas of inclusive education and inclusive communities, and has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences. She received the University of Maine President’s Award for Public Service, lifetime achievement awards from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities and TASH New England, and has been recognized for her state and national leadership in the area of disability policy by the Maine Legislature. Under her leadership, the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies was recognized in 2014 by the University of Maine and the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities for two decades of exemplary work in the area of community engagement.
As a Kennedy Public Policy Fellow, Lu served as an advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and later served as Executive Director of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation while on leave from the University of Maine. She has served on a wide range of federal and state committees, panels, and study groups related to disability issues and policy, and has served in leadership positions for several national, regional and state disability organizations. In addition to her long-standing commitment to creating inclusive schools and communities, Lu’s current research interests focus on universal design including literacy access and acquisition for students with significant intellectual disabilities and the application of the principles of universal design to public policy and higher education. She will be retiring in June after 35 years of service to the University of Maine.
View photos of her retirement tribute here.
Watch an interview with her here.
The Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire was established in 1987 to provide a university-based focus for the improvement of knowledge, policies, and practices related to the lives of persons with disabilities and their families. Its mission is to promote full access, equal opportunities, and participation for all persons by strengthening communities and advancing policy and systems change, promising practices, education, and research.
The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.
