Executive & Committees 2020 – 2023

Executive Members

Colleen Adnams – President, Vice President Africa/Eastern Mediterranean
South Africa
Emeritus Professor of Intellectual Disability
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town.
colleen.adnams@uct.ac.za

Angus Buchanan – President-Elect
Australia
Professor/Head of School at the School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Speech Pathology,
Curtin University, Australia
GPO Box U1987, Perth. Western Australia, 6845
a.buchanan@curtin.edu.au

Kenneth Poon – Treasurer
Singapore
Associate Professor
Associate Dean, Education Research
National Institute of Education,
Nanyang Technological University
kenneth.poon@nie.edu.sg

Ivan Brown – Vice President, Policy and Education, Director of the Academy, and SIRG Coordinator
Canada
ivan.brown@live.ca

Jennifer Zarcone – Secretary
United States of America
Senior Vice President for Adult Clinical Services and Director of Training
The May Institute
JZarcone@mayinstitute.org

Tamar Heller – Vice-President, Americas
United States of America
Distinguished Professor,
Heads of Department – Disability and Human Development,
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and its University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.
theller@uic.edu

Alice Schippers – Vice-President, Europe
Netherlands
alice.schippers@tiscali.nl

Special Interest Research Group Representatives

Aging and Intellectual Disabilities
Chair – Philip McCallion
United States of America
mcclion@albany.edu

Autism Spectrum Disorders
Co-Chair – Ewelina Rydzewska
Scotland
ewelina.rydzewska@glasgow.ac.uk

Co-Chair – Yasamin Bolourian
United States
ybolo002@ucr.edu

Challenging Behaviour and Mental Health
Co-chair – Peter Langdon
United Kingdom
P.E.Langdon@kent.ac.uk

Co-chair – Mindy Scheithauer
United States
mindy.scheithauer@choa.org

Comparative Policy and Practice
Chair – Christine Linehan
Republic of Ireland
christine.linehan@ucd.ie

Down Syndrome
Chair – Rhonda Faragher
Australia
r.faragher@uq.edu.au

Ethics & Intellectual Disability
Co-Chair – Petra Bjorne
Sweden
petra.bjorne@malmo.se

Co-Chair- Ruth Northway
United Kingdom
ruth.northway@southwales.ac.uk

Families
Co-chair – Sandy Magana
United States
maganas@uic.edu

Co-chair – Sarah Dababnah
United States
sdababnah@ssw.umaryland.edu

Health Issues
Co-Chair – Esther Bakker-vanGijssel
Netherlands
Esther.Bakker-vanGijssel@radboudumc.nl

Co-Chair – Jenneken Naaldenberg
Netherlands
Jenneken.Naaldenberg@radboudumc.nl

Inclusive Education
Co-Chair – Tobias Buchner
Austria
tobias.buchner@univie.ac.at

Co-Chair – Deidre Corby
Republic of Ireland
deirdre.corby@dcu.ie

Inclusive Research
Chair – Fionn Angus
Ireland
Fionn.CrombieAngus@dspg.uk

Assistant to the Chair – Jonathan Angus
Ireland
fionnathan.productions@gmail.com

Parenting with Intellectual Disability
Chair – Marjorie Aunos
Canada
maunos.crom@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Profound Multiple Disabilities
Chair – Bea Maes
Belgium
bea.maes@kuleuven.be

Quality of Life
Co-Chair – Meaghan Edwards
Canada
meaghan.edwards@ucalgary.ca

Co-chair – Keith McVilly
Australia
keith.mcvilly@unimelb.edu.au

Governance Committee

Tony Holland, M.D., Cambridge University (UK)

Mary McCarron, Ph.D., Trinity College Dublin (Republic of Ireland)

Germain Weber, Ph.D., University of Vienna (Austria)

Bruce Tonge, M.D., Monash University (Australia)

Jennifer Zarcone, Ph.D., The May Institute (USA)

Michael Guralnick, PhD., University of Washington (USA)

Membership Committee

Jennifer Zarcone, The May Institute, US – Chair

Yasamin Bolourian, University of California Riverside, US

Peter Langdon, University of Warwick, UK

Sui Sone, Tokyo Metropolitan Higashiyamato Medical Center for Persons with Developmental/Multiple Disabilities, Japan

Keith McVilly, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Marco Lombardi, Hogeschool Gent, Belguim

Others

Ivan Brown – Director, IASSIDD Academy
Canada
ivan.brown@utoronto.ca

Rhonda Faragher – JPPID Co-Editor
Australian Catholic University, Australia
r.faragher@uq.edu.au

Laurence Taggart – JPPID Co-Editor
Ulster University, United Kingdom
l.taggart@ulster.ac.uk

Richard Hastings – JIDR Editor
United Kingdom
r.hastings@warwick.ac.uk

International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) 

The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) is the first and only world-wide group dedicated to the scientific study of intellectual disability.

Founded in 1964 as the International Association for the Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency, IASSIDD is an international, interdisciplinary and scientific non-governmental organization which promotes worldwide research and exchange of information on intellectual disabilities.