50 Years - Opening Doors, Transforming Lives
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Timeline
How quickly the world has changed for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 50 years. Families, community organizations, researchers, clinicians, staff, students, educators, public policy makers - all have worked together to create change. We will create an even better future together over the next 50 years. The VKC Timeline places VKC milestones within the context of the national disabilities rights movement.
View list of center directors
1950s
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1954 — Research Behavioral Scientists in Mental Retardation training program established at Peabody College; nation’s first doctoral-level program in intellectual disabilities research, continuously funded by NICHD for over 50 years.
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1954 — Peabody College created Division of Human Development; included Department of Psychology, Department of Education of Exceptional Children, and Child Study Center.
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[Unless noted all photos are from the George Peabody College Photograph Collection, Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives]