Alan Cobo-Lewis

Alan Cobo-Lewis received his BA in psychology in 1988 from the University of Miami and his PhD in psychology in 1992 from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow. He then returned to the University of Miami. In 1998 he joined the faculty at the University of Maine, where he is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS), Maine’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), funded by the Administration for Community Living under the federal Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. He is also co-director of NH-ME LEND.  

Dr. Cobo-Lewis has led funded research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Jewish Guild for the Blind, the Administration for Children and Families, and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.  

As a parent of two young adults, one of whom has autism, Dr. Cobo-Lewis has been an active member of the disability community in Maine for years. He has served as a long-time member and leader of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council and Maine Children’s Growth Council, has earned the respect of legislators and advocates alike for his work in disability policy, and has received a number of awards for his advocacy, including the University of Maine Presidential Public Service Award, Autism Society of Maine Service Award, Maine Children’s Alliance Giraffe Award (for people who “stick their neck out” for kids), Maine Down Syndrome Network Buddy Award, and Helen M. Bailey Advocacy Award from Disability Rights Maine. Dr. Cobo-Lewis was among the group of advocates who helped pass autism insurance coverage in Maine in 2010 and who helped expand it in 2014.  

Dr. Cobo-Lewis’s approach to public policy is based in evidence and rooted in rights.