In August, Kimberly Phillips, a Project Director at the IOD, defended her dissertation in fulfillment of the requirements for her PhD in Psychology from UNH. She received her degree in September.
To maintain successful employment, people with disabilities must often navigate attitudinal barriers that result in bias, conflict, and discriminatory treatment on the part of their supervisors and coworkers. As a part of her dissertation, Navigating Barriers at Work: Exploring the Perceptions of Employees with Disabilities, Dr. Phillips designed two studies to investigate the idea that employees’ perceptions of and response to these types of barriers depend, in part, on their beliefs about their own self-competence, ability to cope with problems, and estimations of their relationships with others, particularly supervisors, in the workplace. Results showed that occupational self-efficacy, coping style, personal intelligence, and perceptions of person-focused and task-focused supervisor support were all useful in understanding employees’ with disabilities perceived potential at work and its associations with attitudinal barriers, decisions whether or not to disclose disability at work, and subjective work success.
Dr. Phillips joined the IOD as a program evaluator in 2010. She conducts primary and secondary data research, as well as evaluation and project management for several grant-funded efforts. Presently, Dr. Phillips leads a research project for the NIDILRR-funded Employment Policy and Management RRTC and serves as Co-Investigator of the CDC-funded New Hampshire Disability & Public Health project. She has co-authored peer-reviewed publications in several journals, including the Review of General Psychology; Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin; and the Journal of Rehabilitation. In addition, she has presented research at numerous national conferences and produced a number of data surveillance reports.
Congratulations, Dr. Phillips!
