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Sam Fahmy
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ATLANTA—A gift from the founding Director of the Center for Leadership in Disability in the Georgia State University School of Public Health and his wife will support the center’s mission for decades to come.
The Daniel Crimmins and Stacey Ramirez Distinguished Scholar for Leadership in Disability in the Center for Leadership in Disability will advance the center’s work to translate research into sustainable community practices that
After retiring from GSU, Daniel Crimmins and his wife, Stacey Ramirez, founded Crimminz & Associates, LLC.contribute to independent, self-determined, inclusive and productive lives for people with disabilities and their families. Erin Vinoski Thomas, interim Director of the CLD and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences, has been selected as the inaugural Crimmins and Ramirez Distinguished Scholar.
“Throughout his exemplary career, Dr. Crimmins has worked tirelessly to apply the latest research findings to the needs of people with disabilities and their families,” said School of Public Health Dean and Professor Rodney Lyn. “With Stacey, he continues to support the life-changing work of the Center for Leadership in Disability through the establishment of this new Distinguished Scholar position.”
The CLD is one of 67 University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities in the nation and a unit of the Mark Chaffin Centers for Healthy Development in the GSU School of Public Health.
“Dr. Crimmins’ generous gift and vision for advancing disability health equity through the endowed Distinguished Scholar fund are a culminating example of his career investment in fostering leadership to make a difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families,” said Kathleen Baggett, Director of the Mark Chaffin Centers for Healthy Development. “Dr. Vinoski Thomas’ commitment and innovative work at the helm of the CLD make her a natural choice for the Crimmins and Ramirez Distinguished Scholar award.”
Leaders in the field of disability
Trained as a child psychologist, Crimmins has a more than forty-year record of leadership in the field of disability. Much of his career has focused on assisting parents, teachers and other support providers in understanding the circumstances in which challenging behaviors occur, modifying environments to make behaviors less frequent and teaching new positive skills that serve the individual in social interactions.
He joined the faculty of what was then known as the GSU Institute of Public Health in 2008 as a Clinical Professor and founding Director of the CLD. He served as Principal Investigator for more than $30 million in federal grants and state contracts and authored more than 75 peer-reviewed journal articles and books. As CLD Director, he spearheaded the launch of several programs, including the Georgia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) training program and the IDEAL program, an inclusive post-secondary program for students with intellectual disabilities.
After retiring from GSU, he and his wife, Stacey Ramirez, founded Crimminz & Associates, LLC, which embraces values of inclusion, cultural competence and the use of evidence-based practices. Guided by a commitment to the full engagement of individuals with disabilities and their families, consultation, education and program development are deployed to enhance organizational and systems capacity for ensuring individualized supports to all.
Vinoski Thomas joined the GSU CLD faculty in 2019 and served in several leadership roles before being named interim Director earlier this year. Her research on disability health disparities emphasizes the identification and promotion of holistic health behaviors, particularly among women and girls. It is supported by more than $7 million in grants and contracts from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Education. She has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications.
Before earning her Ph.D., she served as a Disability and Health Fellow with the National Association of County and City Health Officials. In this role, she supported a national program providing technical assistance to local health departments across the United States to increase their inclusion of people with disabilities in their policies, programs and services.
“Dr. Crimmins and Ms. Ramirez are great mentors to me, through their expertise as scholars, innovators, and perhaps most importantly, people who care deeply about the well-being of Georgians with disabilities,” Vinoski Thomas said. “It is an honor to be named as the Crimmins and Ramirez Distinguished Scholar and continue working toward achieving health equity across the lifespan for individuals with disabilities.”
Story by Sam Fahmy