The 2024 – 2026 Center for Engaged Learning Seminar will be led by Drs. Stephen Byrd, Caroline Ketcham, and Joana Rankin. 

Stephen Byrd is an Associate Professor of special education at Elon University. His research work centers on families and their perceptions of disability, information, and special education services. Stephen regularly presents at local, state, and national conferences. He also engages in undergraduate research and serves as program coordinator for special education at Elon. He has also traveled to India and Uganda to share his work.  

Caroline Ketcham is Professor in Exercise Science at Elon University. Her disciplinary research focuses on motor control in neurodivergent populations, the management and recovery of concussions, and positive mental wellbeing advocacy. Caroline has been engaged in high-impact practice research including co-mentoring undergraduate research for student and faculty development, access and engagement for student-athletes, neurodivergent, and disabled students, and capstone experiences. She has been recognized as an outstanding teacher-scholar-mentor with college and university wide awards. 

Joanna Rankin is an Associate Professor in the Community Rehabilitation & Disability Studies (CRDS) at the University of Calgary. Her current work is focused on the development and piloting of a Radical Mental Health Doula model, EDI, and the systemic inequities and oppressions faced by disabled people. She draws from her background in Critical Disability Studies and her frontline work in the mental health sector. Dr. Rankin’s career goals are to bridge theory and practice and to enhance the methodological and ethical considerations of grassroots approaches in which research participants are not studied using a top-down approach but are co-researchers in a collaborative process.

Seminar participants also will work with two CEL Student Scholars as partners throughout the three years.