Ben Schwartzman, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor of Special Education

VKC Member

Overview of Interests

Dr. Ben Schwartzman is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in their transition from adolescence to adulthood, with a specific emphasis on inventions to connect individuals with IDD to paid employment. He is a Member of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and serves as Principal Investigator on four projects:

• 1. The Peer Empowerment Network is a two-year project funded by Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation which aims to create peer mentorships between employed adults with IDD and job seeking adults with IDD. The goal of the project is to provide mentorship training for employed adults so that they may share their lived experience and success stories with job seeking adults in helping them connect to paid employment.
• 2. The Tennessee Employment Pathways Project is a five-year intervention development study in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on the Employment of Persons with IDD funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Led by Dr. Schwartzman and Emily Lanchak, the Tennessee Employment Pathways Project aims to provide families with guidance and information on how to successfully connect their adult family members with IDD to paid employment. For more information about this project, visit https://idd.vcurrtc.org/research/study5.cfm.
• 3. Medicaid Alternative Pathways to Independence (MAPs) Peer Mentorship Curriculum Development and Evaluation – Funded through a contract with Tennessee’s DIDD MAPs Program, Dr. Schwartzman will be creating a training curriculum and evaluation process for implementing a statewide peer mentorship program between adults with IDD. The program aims to match adults with IDD who have experienced successful outcomes—such as connecting to paid employment, graduating from college or other postsecondary education programs, living independently, or navigating public transportation—to transition-aged individuals with IDD who are hoping to achieve those same outcomes.
• 4. Tennessee Employment First Accreditation Development – Funded through a contract with Tennessee’s Department of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (DIDD), Dr. Schwartzman and Leah Burgess partnered with Tech First SHIFT to create a nationally-recognized accreditation for disability service provider agencies, job coaches, and other direct support professionals in implementing Employment First practices. For more information about Employment First, visit https://www.tn.gov/didd/for-consumers/employment--first.html.

Prior to his work at Vanderbilt, Dr. Schwartzman was the director of a community college transition program for adults with IDD at Foothill College in the San Francisco Bay Area called Tools for Transition and Work (TTW). Dr. Schwartzman received his PhD in Human Development and Psychology from UCLA where he focused on interventions for youth and young adults with IDD.

ID: 34013

Back to the people index